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An immigrant ship entering New York Harbor 



SCHOOL HISTORY 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES 



BY 



ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, LL. D. 

•I 

PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

Author of "New American History'''' 




REVISED 



\J 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 

BOSTON ATLANTA 



E I7S 



Copyright, 1918, 1920, by 
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 



All rights reserved 



SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE DOTTED STATES 
Q.B.I 



JAN -3 1921 
^CU6052ll 



INTRODUCTION 

Why should a new School History of the United States be written? 
Chiefly in order to put at the disposition of the upper grades a book 
embodying a broadly national point of view and presenting adequate 
treatment of certain topics which hitherto have been too little stressed 
in the study of American history. 

(1) The European background of our history is clearly sketched, 
with due recognition of our inheritance of language, law, and political 
methods from England. Due attention is also paid to other influences 
from overseas. 

(2) Great pains have been taken to treat adequately the various 
sections of the country, which differ somewhat from one another. Hence 
there are special chapters on the West, the far West, and the new South, 
as well as a brief but clear account of the thirteen English colonies and 
of the distribution of American territory among the colonizing nations. 

(3) Another important feature is the fullness of treatment of the 
social and industrial conditions of the colonies and the later United 
States, for which twelve of the thirty-seven chapters are set apart. 

(4) Wars are treated as intense experiences of the American people; 
the aim is not merely to give the causes and results, but also to show 
how the problems of raising armies and carrying on the struggles have 
been solved, and what was the effect on the life of the community. 
Military and naval movements are subordinated. 

(5) A special effort is made to bring home to the minds of children 
the way in which our government is carried on. The book includes not 
only- brief accounts of elections and political events, but also simple 
descriptions of important parts of the machinery of government, such as 
the Federal Convention, national banks, and the tariff. 

(6) As one of the main purposes of history is to bring boys and girls 
to understand such political questions as they themselves are likely 
to confront, about a third of the book is devoted to the period since 
the Civil War; the effort has been made so to simplify the questions 
of currency, banking, transportation, and business combinations, as 
to make them understood by school children as a part of the problems 
of their own national and state governments. 

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 
3 



FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 

This School History is intended first of all to be a textbook which 
children will study. It is illustrated by pictures and maps which 
ought to be used as a part of their study; beyond that, it contains 
references and topics which will make it easy to extend the work 
somewhat outside of the textbook by additional reading and essay 
writing. All the work of the children is intended to fix in their minds 
the impression that history is continuous and that those who came 
before us were living human beings like ourselves. 

Recitations. — -The text is written in simple language so as to be 
easily understood by pupils in the grades. Some subjects, as for ex- 
ample the Federal Convention, banks, slaven,', specie and paper cur- 
rency, conservation, etc., involve ideas which may be novel to the chil- 
dren, but which every American school child can and should acquire. 

The questions at the ends of chapters referring to parts of the num- 
bered sections are about twelve hundred in number, and cover the whole 
text. Most of them, however, cannot be answered by a mere repetition 
of the text, and children should be encouraged to make all statements 
in their own words. 

Pictures and Maps. — The illustrative material has been chosen with 
great care so as to make the text clearer. Children should be encour- 
aged to search the pictures for details, and to use the picture references 
at the ends of chapters to find other illustrations on the same subjects. 
The maps also will be found directly helpful to the pupil. The teacher 
ought to bring out geographical details in the recitations and use the 
black board for further information. Properly taught, political geog- 
raphy is a great aid to history. The chapter references will lead to 
the use of additional maps. 

Topics. — Where the conditions allow, the work of the children 
will be enlivened if they can do something constructive. Carefully 
selected references are therefore made to standard histories, especially 
the briefer ones, and also to easily available sets of sources; for nothing 
gives such vitality to a child's knowledge as some use of things actually 

4 



FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 5 

written by people of past times. The essay subjects offer a good op- 
portunity to connect the work in English with that in history; and the 
chapter references will lead to good materials for the knowledge neces- 
sary to the essay writer. Children should also be encouraged to read 
stories which have an historical background, and the references provide 
for that pleasure. 

Scope of the Book. — In the Introduction attention is called to the 
social and economic trend of the volume; the spirit of modern times 
calls for knowledge of and constant use of this significant side of his- 
tory. In the nature of things it is not so easy to study conditions and 
inventions and methods of business as to take up the personal, narra- 
tive part of history ; but social life, the opening up of the frontier, the 
growth of mechanical devices, and the improvement of business are 
among the things that count most in the development of our nation. It 
is just as important for children to learn how their forefathers worked 
and lived as to learn about their wars and their government. 

Brief List of Desk Books. — Every teacher ought to have at hand 
a few historical aids, some of which should be at all times available for 
the use of the pupils. A list of the most important books referred to 
in the chapter references will be found in the Appendix. Here is a 
carefully selected list of about twenty works out of which the teacher 
should choose at least one from each of the four groups for personal 
and desk use: 

1. Methods and Materials. American Historical Association, Committee 

of Seven, The Study of History in Schools. (N. Y., Macmillan, 1899.) 
Bourne, H. E., The Teaching of History and Civics in the Elementary and 

Secondary School. (N. Y., Longmans, 1902.) 
Channing, E., Hart, A. B., and Turner, F. J., Guide to the Study and Read- 
ing of American History. (Boston, Ginn, 1912.) 
History Teachers' Magazine (monthly). (Philadelphia, McKinley, 1909.) 
New England History Teachers' Association, A History Syllabus for 
Secondary Schools, Part IV. (Boston, Heath, 1904.) — Historical 
Sources in Schools. (N. Y., Macmillan, 1902.) 

2. Collection of Sources. Caldwell, H. W., ed., Survey of American 

History. (Chicago, Ainsworth, 1900.) 
Caldwell, H. W., and Persinger, C. E., eds.. Source History of the United 

States. (Chicago, Ainsworth, 1909.) 
Hart, A. B., ed., American History told by Contemporaries. (4 vols., 

N. Y., Macmillan, 1897-1901.) — American Patriots and Statesmen. 

(5 vols., N. Y., Collier's, 1916.) — Source Book of American History. 

(N. Y., Macmillan, 1900.) — Source Readers in American History. 

(4 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1902-1903.) 



6 FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 

Hart, A. B., and Channing, Edward, eds., American History Leaflets. (36 

nos., N. Y., Simmons, 1892-1910.) 
Hill, Mabel, cd., Liberty Documents, with Contemporary Exposition and 

Critical Comments. (X. Y., Longmans, 1901.) 
MacDonald, Wm., cd., Documentary Source Book of American History. 

(N. Y., Macmillan, 1908.) 

3. Single Volumes and Brief Series of Histories. Bassett, J. S., Short 

History of the United States. (N. Y., Macmillan, 1913.) 
Epochs of American History. (3 vols, by Thwaites, R. G.; Hart, A. B.; 

Wilson, Woodrow. N. Y., Longmans. Rev. eds. about 1914.) 
Home University Library of Modern Knowledge. (5 vols, by Andrews, 

CM.; Smith, T.C.; MacDonald, William; Paxson, F. L.; Haworth, 

T. L. N. Y., Holt, 1911-1914.) 
The Riverside History of the United States. (4 vols, by Becker, C. L.; 

Johnson, A.; Dodd, W. E.; Paxson, F. L. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 

1916.) 
Fish, C. R., Development of American Nationality. (A history of the 

American People from 1783 to the present. N. Y., American Book 

Company, 191 3.) 
Sparks, E. E., The United States of America. (2 vols., N. Y., Putnams, 

1904.) 

4. Maps. Shepherd, William R., Historical Atlas. (N. Y., Holt, 191 1, 

new ed.) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Forerunners of American History (1200-1550) 11 

II. Discovery and Discoverers (1000-1604) 23 

III. First English Settlements (1607-1660) 43 

IV. Rivals and New Colonies (1604-1689) 59 

V, Colonial Life (1689-1750) 75 

VI. War and the West (1689-1763) 92 

VII. Colonial Labor and Colonial Business (1689-1763) 107 

VIII. Why There Was a Revolution (1763-1774) 120 

IX. The Revolutionary War (1775-1783) 131 

X. Independence AND THE Union (1775-1781) 144 

XI. The Old Roof and the New Roof (1781-1789) 155 

XII. How People Lived a Century Ago (1790-1820) 168 

XIII. The Fedicralists in Power (1789-1801) 178 

XIV. Expansion and Neutral Trade (1801-1812) 190 

XV. W.AR with Great Britain (1809-1815) 204 

XVI. Going West (i 790-1830) 215 

XVII. How the Nation Came Together (1815-1829) 229 

XVIII. The American People (1829-1860) 245 

XIX. New Parties and Politics (1829-1841) 258 

XX. New Business IMethods (1829-1860) 269 

XXI. Westward Expansion (1840-1850) 285 

XXII. Young America (1829-1861) 300 

XXIII. Sectional Feeling (1850-1860) 312 

XXIV. First Period of the Civil War (1S60-1SG3) 329 

XXV. The People During the Civil War (1861-1865) 342 

XXVI. Conclusion of the Civil War (1863-1865) 357 

XXVII. Reconstruction (1865-1869) 369 

XXVIII. The West and the Pacific Slope (1870-1885) 380 

XXIX. Politics and Parties (1869-1885) 394 

XXX. The New South (1869-1885) 407 

XXXI. Business and Labor (1869-1890) 417 

XXXII. Democratic Administrations (1885-1897) 431 

XXXIII. The Spanish War and its Results (1897-1907) 446 

XXXIV. Big Business (1890-1916) 45^ 

XXXV. The People's Life (1900-1916) 469 

XXXVI. New Problems for Americans to Solve (i8go-i9i6) 479 

XXXVII. Political Development (1905-1917) 492 

XXXVIII. America in the World War 502 

APPENDICES 

A. Declaration of Independence i 

B. Constitution of the United States v 

C. Table of the States xix 

D. Table of the Presidents xx 

E. List of Important Books xxi 




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REFERENCE MAPS 

Paces 

Territorial Development of the United States, 1783-1916 8, 9 
Physical Map of the United States, with Location of Impor- 
tant Indian Tribes 31 

National Settlement in North America, 1750 94 

Colonial Trade and Commerce, 1689-1775 113 

Revolutionary War 132 

United States in 1802 182 

Opening of the West, 1815-1830 222 

United States, 182 2-1830 239 

Principal Transportation Lines in the United States, 1850 2S1 
Acquisitions of Territory, 1845-1853, and Campaigns of the 

War with Mexico 290 

United States in 1861 328 

Eastern United States. Emancipation, 1863-1865 374 

The Far West and the Pacific Coast, 1890 433 

United States and its Possessions 444, 445 

United States (Showing Admission of States ant) Principal 

Agricultural, Mining, and Manufacturing Regions) 482, 483 



SCHOOL HISTORY 
OF THE UNITED STATES 



CHAPTER I 
FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY (1200-1550) 

1. What is the United States? — Upon any globe that 
shows the world there will be seen a continent marked " North 
America." Across it, 
extending from the 
Atlantic Ocean to the 
Pacific, lies a broad ex- 
panse labeled " United 
States," which is di- 
vided into forty-eight 
parts called " states." 
That is our home, three 
thousand miles west of 
the coast of Europe and 
five thousand miles east 
of the islands off the 
coast of Asia. 

Hundreds of volumes 
have been written 
about the United 
States, telling of its 
harbors, its rivers, and 
its lakes, and describ- 
ing such natural won- 
ders as Niagara Falls with its plunge of one hundred and 
sixty feet of bright green water; the marvelous Yosemite 




Nevada Falls (about 600 feet high) in Yosemite 
National Park, California 



12 FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Valley ; the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, scooped out of solid 
rock, in places six thousand feet deep; and Glacier National 
Park on the northern border. Still, however interesting this 
land may be, a description of it would belong to geography and 
not to history; for history is an account of the origin and 
growth of the people who live upon a land. 

2. The American People. — The phrase "the United 
States " is sometimes loosely applied to the people who live 
within the country, as for instance: " the United States has 
a federal government." We mean by that phrase that the 
people of the United States live under a federal government. 
Both at home and abroad, the people of this land are usually 
known as "Americans," though the native Indians are also 
Americans and there are other North and South Americans 
who do not live within our boundaries and rather resent it that 
we should think of ourselves as especially " The Americans." 

This School History of the United States aims to tell how 
there came to be an American people and what they have done; 
for the land is important only because it is inhabited by wide- 
awake, industrious, and thoughtful men, women, and children. 
It would take a million books to tell the whole story of the 
beginnings and growth of the United States, for scores of 
millions of people have come to this land or have been born 
here, have lived and died here, have worked and suffered 
here, in order to make the nation. In one small book we can 
select only a few people, events, and governments, such as 
stand out most clearly. We can learn much about the history 
of our country from the lives of the great leaders who made 
discoveries, founded colonies, built up the states, and helped 
to make the American nation. We must also learn what 
was thought and what was done by the plain common people 
who did the hard work, fought the battles, and elected the 
statesmen to office. We must try to see them at work, 
hunting for furs or fishing or farming, weaving cloth, build- 
ing ships, opening mines, starting factories, running railroads, 
digging canals, or manning ships of war. W^e must learn what 
sort of governors, presidents, legislatures, congresses, and 
courts the American people have had; how they have framed 



AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THEIR LAND 



13 



a system of " government by the people." All these things are 
parts of our history which young Americans ought to know. 

3. The United States a Part of the Greater World. — The 
physical United States, the land and water which make up 
the face of the country, cannot be cut off by the hand of man 
from the rest of the North American continent. That conti- 
nent cannot be set apart from the rest of the western hemi- 
sphere; and that hemisphere is not far away from the eastern 
hemisphere. They are all parts of the same world. So with 
the people of the United States. They are not a race by 
themselves, but are made up of descendants of all the races 
of Europe and of many of the races of Asia and Africa. No 
one can write a history of the United States without taking 
into account the other parts of the earth where the ancestors 
of the present Americans lived. 

We must remember that every American, except those of 
the native Indian race, is an immigrant or the descendant of 
an immigrant. Nearly all the immigrants to North and South 
America down to 1820 came from those parts of Europe which 
lie on the Baltic Sea, 
the Atlantic Ocean, 
and the Mediterranean 
Sea, or from Africa. 
Therefore, the first step 
in the study of our own 
history is to find out 
what kind of nations 
and people discovered 
and occupied America. 

4. European Coun- 
tries and Commerce 
(1200-1500). — Out of 

the territory which a thousand years before had been occu- 
pied by the mighty Roman Empire, a group of European 
countries slowly grew up — England, Germany, France, Spain, 
Portugal, Italy, and the Greek Empire of which Constanti- 
nople was the capital. These were all commercial nations; 
and the boldest and bravest of the people engaged in business 



^^^IM 


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Only the boldest mariners would venture into un- 
known seas believed to abound in fabled mon- 
sters. (From a picture published in 1555) 



14 



FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



and made money with which they could build strong walls 
and hire soldiers to defend them. Cities such as Venice and 
Genoa were rich enough to fit out powerful navies and to 




Early traders' routes between Europe and Asia. Showing also Portuguese discoveries 
along the west coast of Africa to 1487 

raise armies of foot soldiers. Their pack horses and wagons 
and boats carried goods along the streams and across the 
mountains to every part of Europe. Their ships sailed to 
Constantinople and the Black Sea, to Egypt, to England, to 
the " Low Countries," now Belgium and Holland, on the 
southern coast of the North Sea. They fought with land 
robbers and with sea pirates; they fought with enemies of 



COMMERCE WITH ASIA 1 5 

their country; they fought with each other; and notwith- 
standing the losses of those wars they grew richer and more 
populous. 

For thousands of years Europe was constantly receiving 
goods from eastern Asia, a part of the world which was almost 
as hard to reach as the north pole is now. It seems strange that 
people should have bought and sold diamonds and peacocks, 
sugar and spices, pearls and silks, carpets and drugs, without 
ever seeing the lands from which they came or the people who 
produced them. For ages caravans had been passing to and 
fro, overland from northwestern India to the Caspian Sea 
and the eastern Mediterranean. For ages Arab traders had 
carried goods from India up the Red Sea to Egypt. Never- 
theless almost the only European who was ever moved to go 
into those distant lands was Marco Polo, a Venetian, who 
about 1275 made his way overland to China, heard tales about 
Japan, and after many years got back home to tell his story in 
a famous book of travels. 

This ignorance about Asia was unfortunate, because China 
and India knew many things that would have been useful to 
Europeans. The Chinese Empire was older than, and as great 
as, the ancient Roman Empire. The Chinese, ages before this 
time, had invented the mariner's compass, gunpowder, the 
art of printing, the use of paper money, the making of fine 
porcelain, and other arts not known in Europe. Yet most of 
Asia was an unknown land to Europeans. 

5. The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation (1300- 
i55o)« — About the year 1300 all western Europe began to 
pass through a sort of awakening which is commonly called 
the "Renaissance"; that is, the rebirth. Many travelers 
visited Rome, which though partly in ruins gave them an 
idea of the wealth and power that the Roman Empire had 
once possessed. Artists studied the buildings and sculpture, 
literary men read and translated the ancient writers, and people 
felt a new desire to learn something about the past and to 
know what the world was really like. Several Popes were 
leaders in the Renaissance. 

New arts were discovered or brought from distant lands. 



1 6 FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

A German named Gutenberg invented for himself the art 
of printing with movable types. Sailors began to use the 
magnetic compass and felt freer to venture out of sight of 
land. Learned men began to study chemistry, which was 
then called alchemy. This new spirit led to a new idea of the 
education of children so that they might be taught to think 
more for themselves. 

The interest in new things spread to voyages of exploration. 
At that time nearly everybody in Europe believed that the 
world was a sort of irregular flat pancake with frozen rivers 
and burning deserts all around the rim. The best sailors of 
that time were the Italians. Whenever they came home they 
made a chart of the lands that they had discovered, for the 
benefit of other sailors. The method of "sailing on the wind" 
had been discovered not long before this time and made it 
safer to go on long voyages in unknown seas, for it was possible 
to get back home against head winds. To find one's place at 
sea was very important, and rude instruments, such as the 
" astrolabe," were invented, by which the navigator could 
tell how far he was north or south of the equator, though he 
could not be sure of his easting or westing. 

One of the results of the Renaissance was that men began 
to differ about religion. There was 'the Armenian Christian 
Church in Asia Minor and the Greek Christian Church in the 
Greek Empire and Russia. The Roman Catholic Church was 
the only church in central and western Europe. In 1517 
some German priests, monks, and laymen, headed by Martin 
Luther, set out to reform the church, and after a few years 
broke away from it. This movement took the name of the 
Protestant Reformation. It spread into other countries — 
Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Scandina\ian 
countries, and England — and western Europe was thus di- 
vided between two religious faiths. 

6. European Business Methods (1200-1500). — Under the 
influence of the Renaissance, which led people to enjoy more 
luxuries, the trade of Europe increased. The Venetians and 
the Genoese had most of the trade with the Greek Empire 
and handled most of the wares that came from the interior 



EUROPEAN BUSINESS METHODS 17 

of Asia. From Genoa and Venice there were roads by land 
into northern Europe; and the Spaniards, French, and 
EngHsh were eager and successful traders. The Germans 
also were excellent seamen and controlled nearly all the trade 
in the Baltic Sea. The richest district in Europe was the so- 
called Low Countries, in which were the cities of Antwerp, 
Ghent, and Bruges with their great manufactures of fine cloths. 
Merchants had to seek large profits, for they ran many 
risks. Vessels were not strongly built, and many were wrecked 
for lack of lighthouses and charts of the dangerous rocks and 
shoals. Pirates cruised everywhere, especially in the Medi- 
terranean Sea. When war broke out, and often before it 
broke out, vessels from one country would be seized by vessels 
of war on the other side, or by other armed merchant ships. 
Sailors especially dreaded the row-galleys, propelled by slaves 
so that they could move against wind and tide, and could thus 



A row-galley of the i6th century. The lilies on the banners show that it is French. 
Notice that the craft also carries sails 

capture a vessel that was becalmed. Nothing in all the 
history of mankind has been more cruel and pitiless than the 
treatment of the galley slaves, who were chained to their 
oars and forced to work by the lash. Shakespeare's Merchant 
of Venice is a lively picture of how business was conducted at 
that time, how money was borrowed, and how a merchant 
could be ruined by wrecks and pirates. 



i8 



FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 




Interior of the Grammar School in Stratford-on-Avon where Shakespeare 
went to school 

7. European Ideas that Affected America. — The reason 
for telling this brief story of European conditions is to make 
us understand what kind of people crossed the ocean and 
founded new communities in the New World. For the first 
colonists did not think of themselves as Americans at all. 
They were simply Spaniards or F'renchmen or Englishmen, 
who chose to live across the sea, and who continued to live as 
nearly as they could in the same way as at home. 

Among the ideas which the colonists all brought with them 
was the European notion that some people were kings, some 
lords, and some just common people. They felt that who- 
ever was king must be obeyed, no matter what his character 
was; and that a man or family with a noble name was more 
important than ordinary people. 

Another European idea was that the Christians ought to 
convert the heathen. The Catholics had for ages sent mission- 
aries among the pagans in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They 
continued that good work in the Xew World, and were fol- 
lowed in it by the Protestants. In European cities were 
schools and universities, and similar schools and colleges were 
set up in America. 



EUROPEAN IDEAS 1 9 

The methods of European trade were used in the New 
World, and the rival merchants of different countries fought 
with and plundered each other, much as they did at home. 

We Americans ought to be especially thankful for certain 
European ideas about human freedom. Both Catholics and 
Protestants thought it wrong to hold Christians in slavery, 
and hence nearly all the Europeans who settled in America 
were treated as free persons. On the other hand, most 
Europeans thought it right to make slaves of pagans and 
therefore saw no objection to enslaving the Indians in 
America. 

A privilege highly prized in Europe was a written document 
commonly called a " charter," by which a king granted lands 
or rights which later kings had not the power to take away. 
Some such charters were granted to the whole nation, par- 
ticularly the famous " Magna Charta," or " Great Charter," 
extorted from King John of England in 1215. In it he prom- 
ised that " No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned — unless 
by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." 
The English colonists never forgot that they were " freemen," 
and could not be deprived of their liberty so long as they 
obeyed the laws. 

Another form of charter was a grant from a king to an in- 
dividual or an association or " company," which gave the 
right to plant colonies and to govern the settlers. Such 
charters were the beginnings of the English colonies of Vir- 
ginia and Massachusetts. 

8. Summary. — The foregoing chapter is a brief account 
of the people and the countries from which the people of the 
United States have sprung. 

The words " United States " mean the land in which we 
live, and also the American people who live here. This history 
tells how they came to this continent, what they have done, 
and what sort of country they have built up. 

The people of western and southern Europe, from which 
America was colonized, were strong, prosperous, and fond of 
trade. They received goods from Asia, though they never 
went there. About the year 1300 there arose among them 



20 FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

what we call the Renaissance, a period in which people began 
to write new books, make new inventions, think out new 
forms of religion and government, and explore new countries. 
The Renaissance was followed by the Protestant Reforma- 
tion, which divided western Europe into two religious 
groups. 

One of the results of the Renaissance was a greater interest 
in strange countries, and many voyages were made in spite of 
the dangers of shipwreck and pirates. Frcm these countries, 
after the discovery of America, came thousands of immigrants 
who looked upon themselves not as Americans but as Eng- 
lishmen, Frenchmen, or Spaniards that had chosen to live 
across the ocean from their home country. They brought 
with them their home ideas about kings and nobles, about 
the church and education, about trade, freedom, and the pri\i- 
lege of doing business or founding colonies under a written 
charter which could not be taken away from them. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Cheyney, European Background, 25, 35, 55. — Shepherd, Hist. 
Atlas, 81, 87, 99. 

Histories. Atkinson, Europ. Beginnings of Am. Hist., ch. xx. — 
Becker, Beginnings, 1-17. — Brooks, Story of Marco Polo. — Fiske, 
Discovery of Am., I. ch. iii; New England, ch. i. — Moore, Industrial 
Hist., ch. i. — Southworth, Builders of Our Country, I. ch. ii. — Sparks, 
Expansion of Am. People, ch. i. — Zimmern, Hansa Towns. 

Sources. Cheyney, Readings in Engl. Hist., ch. xil. — Ogg, Source 
Book of MedicBval Hist., chs. .\xvi, xxvii. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 30, 
32. — Robinson, Readings in Europ. Hist., I. §§ 161-168 (Medieval 
life, Hansa, etc.), 218-230 (Renaissance), II. §§ 231-249 (Reformation). 
— Whitcomb, Source Books of Renaissance. 

Side Lights and Stories. Charles, Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta 
Family (Reformation). — Irving, The Alhambra. — Pyle, Men of Iron 
(Chivalry in England). — Scott, The Talisman (Crusades). — Yonge, 
The Armourer's Prentices (Henry VIII). 

Picttxres. Mentor, serial nos. 60, 83, 113, 116. — Traill and Mann, Social 
England (new illustr. ed., pt. ii). — Wright, Hist, of All Nations, IX, X. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ i) I. What is meant by the words "United States"? 2 (For an 
essay). Describe one of the following: (a) Niagara Falls; (b) Grand 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 21 

Canyon of the Colorado; (c) Yosemite Valley; (d) Glacier National 
Park. 3. What is the " history " of a country? 

(§ 2) 4. Who are "The Americans"? 5. Why is it hard to write the 
history of the United States? 6. What things should be treated in a 
history of the United States? 

(§ 3) 7- Is the United States geographically separated from the rest 
of the world? 8. Are the people of the United States a separate race? 
9. Who are the immigrants? 

(§ 4) 10. What were the principal European countries when colonization 
began? 11. How did the Europeans carry on trade? 12. What products 
came from Asia? 13 (For an essay). Account of Marco Polo's travels. 
14. What did the Chinese do for civilization? 

(§ 5) 15- W'hat was the " Renaissance"? 16. What were some of the 
early inventions? 17. How did the early peoples navngate the seas? 
18. What was the Reformation? 

(§ 6) 19. How were goods distributed through Europe? 20. What were 
the richest parts of Europe? 21 (For an essay). Account of pirate 
life. 22. What were galley slaves? 

(§ 7) 23. Mention some European ideas brought by the early colonists. 
24. What was a king? 25. What was slavery? 26. What was a charter? 
27. What was a trading company? 28. What was a colony? 




Columbus discovered land in America, October la, 149a 



CHAPTER II 
DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS (1000-1604) 

9. Discoveries West and East (985-1487) . — When Europe- 
ans knew so little of neighbors who could be reached by a 
land journey eastward, it is not strange that they had no 
knowledge of wild people who were living in an unknown land 
at the distance of several weeks' journey to the westward 
across an untraveled sea. 

Yet in one part of the known world there was a tradi- 
tion of such a land and people. The Scandinavians, often 
called Norsemen, were the boldest people in Europe, splendid 
sailors and great fighters. Some of them occupied Iceland. 
In the year 985 a party of Icelanders reached Greenland and 
little colonies were planted there. In the year 1000 an Icelander 
named Leif Ericson, "the Lucky," sailed beyond Greenland 
to a coast farther south which is now supposed to have been 
Labrador or the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Accord- 
ing to certain " sagas," or traditions handed down by word 
of mouth, the Norsemen found " self-sown wheat," " vines," 
and " grapes," which perhaps were only wineberries. Some 
natives, whom they called " skraelings, swarthy men and ill- 
looking," came in skin canoes to meet them; " even the hair 
of their heads was ugly." After a few voyages the Norsemen 
ceased going to America and the story of their voyages seems 
not to have been known outside of Iceland. 

In fact, most Europeans were not interested in western 
voyages. They wanted to find a road eastward by sea. 
Their object was to avoid the Ottoman Turks, from central 
Asia, who about the year 1300 broke into the Greek Empire, 
occupied Asia Minor, finally captured Constantinople (1453), 
and pushed up through the Balkan region into Hungary. 

HART'S SCH. HIST. — 2 23 



24 



DISCO\^RY AND DISCOVERERS 



They were a rude people who could not keep order on the 
land routes into Asia. Somewhat later they captured Egypt 
also and cut ofT the Red Sea route to India. Hence the 
European merchants wanted to find a direct passage by sea; 
and the Portuguese, beginning about 1420, sent ships down 
the west coast of Africa, hoping to sail around that con- 







9 1 Columbus's First Voyage U02 
^2 .. Second •• 1493-96 

y 3 Cabots U97 

4 VfbpuciusforRpain H99 
* 5 Columbus's Third Voyage 1198-1000 

6 Cabral 1500 

7 Vespucius for Portugal 1501-02 
g Columbus's Fourth Voyage 1002-01 
9 Verrazaoo 1621, 



Routes of early voyages to America 



COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA 25 

tinent (map, page 14). Finally, in 1487, Bartholomew Diaz 
discovered the Cape of Good Hope and the open sea to the 
eastward, and it was expected that the Portuguese would 
shortly reach the coast of Asia by water. But such a route 
to India would be roundabout and more than 10,000 miles 
long. 

10. Columbus Discovers America (1492). — If the world 
was really flat like a pancake, the Portuguese had followed 
around the edge and there was no other sea route to the 
Orient; but suppose the world was a globe — ^then anybody 
could get to China and India by sailing directly westward. 
The idea that the world is round was a very old one, but 
had been rather lost sight of, till it was taken up by a Gen- 
oese sailor named Christopher Columbus. He was born in 
Genoa, probably in 1451, the son of a wool worker. He sailed 
in some of the African voyages, and visited Iceland. He 
turned his mind to this question of westward sailing and asked 
advice of an Italian astronomer, Toscanelli, who assured him 
that the world is round, sent him a map, and guessed that 
the distance from Portugal westward to the continent of 
Asia was only about 6000 miles. It is really about 12,000 
miles. Columbus figured out that Japan must be 4000 miles 
away. , 

Columbus was a poor man and little known, and he tried 
in vain to interest the king of Portugal and the king of 
England and the king of France. With great difficulty he 
got the attention of Queen Isabella of Spain and her hus- 
band, King Ferdinand. They fitted him out with ninety 
men and three little vessels. Setting sail from Palos in 1492 
he stopped for a time at the Canary Islands, and then pushed 
out into unknown seas. After a thirty-three days' voyage on 
a landless sea, during which he sailed about 3200 miles, he 
landed October 12, 1492, on a little island, which the Indians 
called Guanahani, in the Bahama group north of Cuba. He 
carried on shore the royal flag of Spain and took possession 
of the new land for Spain. 

Columbus did not in the least realize the greatness of 
his discovery. The natives were ready to worship these 



26 



DISCOVERY AND DISCO\TRERS 




strange beings who wore armor that seemed to them iron 
skins, and who could shoot thunder out of iron tubes. Co- 
lumbus thought these people were 
Asiatics, and expected to find the 
rich cities of Japan or China before 
long. 

In a few days he came to the 
coast of Cuba and then to another 
large island which he called His- 
paniola, now Haiti. Leaving here 
a few men, who made the first Span- 
ish colony in America, he reached 
home in safety. Throughout Spain 
the people were excited by his story, 
by the savages he had brought back 
with him, and by a few specimens of 
gold. Nobody seemed to doubt that 
Columbus had proved the world to be 
round by sailing westward to Asia. 

11. The Demarcation Line (1493- 
1498). — Ferdinand and Isabella at 
once began to fit Columbus out for another voyage. The 
Portuguese complained that the Spaniards were trying to 
compete with their sea route by getting to India first. To 
prevent disputes between the two nations, Pope Alexander VI 
(in 1493) issued a " bull " — that is, a written decree or order — 
that a " demarcation line " should be drawn north and south 
through the middle of the Atlantic; he decided that the 
Portuguese were to have all of the new discoveries to the cast 
of the line and the Spaniards all to the west. The two coun- 
tries next year agreed to this principle, but moved this line to 
the position shown on page 24. Therefore, when a Portuguese 
fleet under Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good 
Hope and landed in India in 1498, the Spaniards did not 
object. 

This settlement left out of account the fact that if one party 
sailed east and the other west, sooner or later they must meet 
somewhere in Asia. Finally that matter was arranged by 



An Italian knight in the beautiful 
armor of the 15th century 



SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE 27 

drawing the imaginary " demarcation line " right around the 
world. 

No other European country ever felt bound by this divi- 
sion of the world, and in course of time England, France, 
Holland, Sweden, and Russia all claimed a right to discover 
and settle islands and continents anywhere in America or 
Asia. 

12. Later Voyages of Columbus (1493-1504). — In the 
eleven years from 1493 to 1504 Columbus made three 
voyages to America, discovered 
many islands in the West Indies, 
coasted part of South America, 
including the mouth of the Ori- 
noco River, and skirted the Isth- 
mus of Panama. His colony of 
Hispaniola did not flourish and 
he fell into disfavor with the Span- 
ish sovereigns. Fourteen years 
after his first discovery he died 
a broken man. 

Columbus was a fearless sailor 
and a great discoverer. He ex- 
pected to find the civilized and 
wealthy people told about by 
European travelers in Asia. He 
dreamed of a splendid fortune, 
part of which could be devoted to 
a new crusade on the pagans who 




■\JF^^^ 



— Jiruij^ 



held the Holy Land. 



His great Columbus Monument, erected in New 
, . 1 r 1 1 1 York on the four hundredth anniver- 

merits were his wonderful pluck, ^^ „f ^^ discovery of America 

his behef that he could do what 

had never been done before, and his ability to make his un- 
willing sailors continue the first voyage till it was successful. 
13. Discoveries by Rival Nations (1497-1524). — Mean- 
while the Portuguese were spreading far eastward, where they 
conquered a magnificent empire in India, Ceylon, the Spice 
Islands, and China. In 1500 one of their captains, Cabral, 
on a voyage to India, sailed so far west that he struck the 



28 DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 

coast of Brazil, It was found that the demarcation line 
passed to the westward of this part of South America; hence 
some Portuguese settled there, and their descendants are the 
Brazilians of to-day. 

Within about fifteen years after the discovery by Columbus 
it was known that the newly-found lands were not part of 
China or Japan or India; and the question arose, what name 
should be given to them. A Venetian sailor, Americus Vcspu- 
cius, had sailed, in behalf of Spain and then of Portugal along 
the continent of South America, which was clearly no part 
of Asia. Hence in 1507 one Hylacomylus (" Forest-Lake- 
Miller "), an obscure geographer in Germany, suggested that 
the part of the world thus discovered be called "Amerige; 
that is, the land of Americus, or America." The name thus 
first applied to South America eventually came to be used for 
both the new continents. 

The king of England was roused by the reports of Colum- 
bus and in 1497 he gave authority to John Cabot, an Italian, 
to sail west across the ocean. Cabot found land — probably 
the island of Cape Breton — and thus eventually gave the 
English a claim to a share in America. He also reported that 
codfish were plentiful in those seas; and fishermen at once 
began to come out from western Europe to the banks of 
Newfoundland. 

A second rival to Spain was France, which began to show 
an interest in 1524, when the king sent out Vcrrazano, another 
Italian. He coasted North America from the present Georgia 
to Nova Scotia, putting in on the way at what is now 
New York harbor. This voyage became the basis of later 
French claims to territory in North America. 

14. First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522). — One 
reason why Spain paid little attention to the voyages of other 
nations was that there was still hope of finding open water 
through which Asia might be reached. Several Spanish ships 
coasted along the Gulf of Mexico and also the mainland as far 
north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but found no strait leading 
west. In 1513 Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, or 
Darien as it was then called, and reported that the distance be- 



ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND SPANISH 29 

tween the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean — or South 
Sea, as he called it — was only a few miles. 

The next step of the Spaniards was to send out Magellan, 
a Portuguese sea captain, to seek a passage farther south (map, 
pages 36, 37). In 15 19 he set sail with five small vessels and 
touched at the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, where he first tasted 
pineapples, sugar cane, and sweet potatoes. He then entered 
the mouth of the Plata River. Proceeding down the coast, he 
discovered a passage which wound westward among snow-clad 
mountains, and which is now called the Strait of Magellan. 

It took great courage to push into these unknown waters 
and to reach the Pacific Ocean. Magellan sailed northwest- 
ward, the first white voyager in the Pacific Ocean, until he 
reached land at the Ladrone Islands. Then he came upon 
a large group of islands which were afterwards called the 
Philippines, for King Philip of Spain. Magellan was killed 
by the natives there, but one of his vessels kept on around the 
Cape of Good Hope, and after three years' absence returned 
to Spain loaded with valuable spices. In the end Spain held 
the Philippine Islands, though strictly they were in the region 
intended for Portugal by the demarcation agreement. 

15. The Interior of North America. — About thirty years 
after the first discovery of America the Spaniards began to 
plant colonies on the continent of North America. Up to 
that time they knew nothing of the interior except what they 
could gather from the Indians, whose languages they did not 
understand. It interests us to know what sort of land they 
discovered, for they explored parts of the region that is now 
the United States. 

The Spaniards knew that there were splendid harbors all 
along the Atlantic coast, and rivers which must come down 
from higher country inland. They did not realize that there 
was a spine of mountains which we now call the Appalachians, 
behind which there was a magnificent system of rivers and 
lakes; or that far to the west rose the majestic mountain 
chains which later came to be called the Rocky Mountains 
and the Sierra Nevada. They did not guess that in the in- 
terior were great deposits of iron, copper, lead, zinc, gold, 



30 DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 

silver, salt, sulphur, and mercury; stone and marble for 
building; clay for brick and pottery; coal for fuel; oil and 
natural gas for fuel and light. 

When they came to explore the interior, they found it 
covered with endless woods, which in the far Northwest and 
Southwest stretched beyond the Mississippi. These thick 
woods were due to the abundant rainfall which has made the 




Mountain of the Holy Cross, in Colorado, 14,000 feet high. One of the high peaks of 
the Rocky Mountains 

eastern United States so rich ; for rain causes good crops. The 
climate of the region is, we now know, very favorable to 
farming. The snow of the northern winters helps some crops, 
especially wheat, and makes abundant grass and hay for ani- 
mals. In the South it is warm enough for cotton and for 
such fruits as the orange and lemon. America is the native 
land of the potato, Indian corn, and tobeicco; and in one or 
another part of the country the farmers can raise wheat, rye, 
oats, barley, buckwheat, rice, and other grains; apples, 
peaches, cherries, strawberries, and many other fruits; sweet 
potatoes, squashes, beets, and other vegetables; grass, alfalfa, 
and other forage crops for horses and cattle; flax for linseed oil, 
hemp for cloth and cordage, cotton for clothing; even olives, 
dates, and sugar cane. The woods furnish timber for houses, 



3^ 



DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 



and the 



In- 

the 



ships, bridges, fences, and other uses. In the early days 
many animals roamed through the forests and over the prairies. 
Of these the most valuable for their skins or furs were the bear, 

the fox, the beaver, 
the deer, 
buffalo. 

16. The Native 
dians. — Down to 
coming of the Euro- 
peans the only people 
in America were the 
natives whom we call 
Indians. Their skins 
were brown or copper- 
colored, but the}' were 
often called "red men" 
because many of them 
covered their faces with 
red paint. Nobody 
knows when or how 
their ancestors reached 
America. Some of 
them must have lived 
here thousands of years 
ago, when the mastodons were still roaming the plains, for 
tablets have been found in Iowa, scratched with rude pictures 
of those beasts. In Mexico and Peru there are ruins of stone 
buildings wonderfully carved, dating back nobody knows 
how far; and some of these buildings are very like certain 
temples and palaces in southern Asia. Still, if any wanderers 
came from other continents, the tradition of them was lost 
ages ago. 

The native Indians were divided into many nations or 
tribes, large and small, which were like great families. The 
land that they tilled and their hunting grounds belonged to 
the whole tribe, and not to the members. The various tribes 
spoke many different languages, none of them like any tongue 
known in the Old World. 




A beaver family. In the early days the beaver skin 
was the standard by which the settlers valued 
guns, clothing, and other furs. Beaver fur was 
an important export of this country 



NATIVE INDIANS 33 

In the region that is now called the United States, most of 
the Indians were savages. They had no domestic animals 
except dogs; but horses and cattle were brought over later 
from Europe. Some of the tribes wandered from place to 
place and lived chiefly by hunting and fishing. Others, such 
as the Cherokees and the Navahos, were settled in villages 
and raised corn and vegetables for food. The Pueblo Indians, 
in the southwestern part of the country, built curious houses 
of sun-dried clay, like vast, rude apartment houses; each 
house stood by itself, and was the home of a whole village. 

Large mounds of various shapes, such as animals, temples, 
and forts, were found widely scattered over the western coun- 
try, and it is supposed that they were built by ancestors of 
the present Indians. In many parts of the country can still 
be traced " Indian trails," which were paths tramped down 
into the soil by bands of men following one another in single 
file, year after year. 

The tribes had chiefs or headmen, whom they hardly felt 
obliged to obey. Not even in the more civilized regions of 
Mexico and Peru was there what we should call a regular 
government, with laws, taxes, and protection for life and 
property. The Indians made few inventions, and had no 
religion except heathen rites. Most of them were fierce and 
cruel, and little wars between the tribes were going on much 
of the time. They proved to be dangerous enemies to the 
whites. 

17. Spanish Colonies on the Continent (1521-1533). — Soon 
after the death of Columbus the Spaniards learned that there 
was a populous country to the westward which was called 
Mexico; so Hernando Cortes, with about 500 Spanish soldiers, 
marched into the land, found a quantity of gold, killed 
thousands of natives, robbed them of their treasures, and 
set up a permanent colony called New Spain or Mexico 
(1521). Twelve years later Francisco Pizarro broke up the 
similar nation of the Incas, an Indian tribe in South America, 
seized an immense quantity of gold, and founded the Spanish 
colony of Peru. 

These and other colonies were settled by " conquistadores ": 



34 



DISCO\TRY AND DISCOVERERS 



that is, Spanish leaders to whom the land was parceled 
out. For a long time they held the inhabitants practically 
as slaves. A few gold mines were found; and both in Mexico 
and in Peru immensely valuable silver mines were discovered, 

and worked by the 
forced labor of the In- 
dians. Most of the 
silver was sent to 
Spain, which for a 
time seemed the rich- 
est country in the 
world. This easy way 
of getting money 
taught the Spaniards 
to depend too much 
on the colonies and 
too little on their own 
efforts, and Spain soon 
began to decline. 

18. Spanish Inland 
Discoveries (1513- 
1605). — As early as 
15 13 Ponce de Leon 
landed on a coast which 
he named Florida. 
Soon after the con- 
quests of Mexico and 
Peru, the Spaniards 
tried to open up the territory north and northwest of the 
Gulf of Mexico. They had already discovered the Missis- 
sippi River, and in 1539 Hernando De Soto with about 
600 men started from Tampa Bay, Florida, hoping to find 
another country like Mexico. For two years he wandered 
through what is now Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and 
all the way he had to fight with wild tribes. Then he came 
out on the banks of the Mississippi, which he found to be 
" half a league over, very deep and very rapid, being always 
full of trees and timber; the water very thick and muddy." 




Carvings on an Aztec Temple near Cuernavaca, 
Mexico. The keeper is a descendant of the orig- 
inal builders 



INLAND DISCOVERIES 



35 



De Soto died and was buried in the river ; but the 300 men 
who were left, after great hardships, at last reached Mexico. 

A region farther west was reached by Coronado, who in 
1540 started northward from Mexico in search of seven rich 
cities which had been reported to be located somewhere near 
the Rio Grande. He reached the seven cities to find that they 




The Spanish explorations in North America. The shaded area shows the extent 
of the country explored by them 



were only poor pueblo villages occupied by the Zuiii and other 
tribes in what is now New Mexico. Coronado set out in 
further search of a region called Quivira and marched as far 
as what is now eastern Kansas, without finding anything re- 
markable except herds of buffalo which he called " crook- 
backed oxen." After two years of vain wandering, he marched 
back to the city of Mexico, " very sad and very weary, com- 
pletely worn out and shamefaced." 

Some years later (1565) the Spaniards founded St. Augustine 



36 



DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 




The routes of 



in Florida, now the oldest 
town within the United 
States. In 1605 a Spanish 
settlement was made at 
Santa Fc, New Mexico, and 
then others near by. After 
being uprooted once by In- 
dians, these settlements re- 
vived and have continued 
to this day. 

19. Exploration of the 
Pacific Coast (1521-1776). 
— After the Spaniards con- 
quered Mexico and Peru, 
they kept up a trade 
route across the Isthmus of 
Panama and another across 
the broader Isthmus of Tehuantepec; and they built vessels 
on the Pacific coast. Cortes began to explore the coast 
northward, but it was some years before the Spaniards 
learned that the Gulf of California was shut off from the open 
sea by the peninsula of Lower California. In 1542 the 
Spaniard Cabrillo probably went as far north as San Diego 
and Santa Barbara, and his pilot Ferillo discovered and 
named Cape Mendocino, the most western projection of 
California. 

Other Spaniards sailed on northward, but somehow they 
all missed the three most striking points on the coast. Not 
one seems to have entered San Francisco Bay, or the mouth 
of the Columbia River, or the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 
Indeed, it was two hundred years more before it was proved 
that Siberia and Alaska do not make a continuous land. It 
was longer than that (1776) before the Spaniards planted a 
colony on the spacious harbor of San Francisco. 

20. French and English in America (1534-1580). — While 
the Spaniards and the Portuguese were planting colonies, two 
other nations made attempts to take a share of the New World. 
Captain Jacques Cartier made voyages for France to the gulf 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN MIERICA 



37 




Drake and Magellan around the world 



and river of St. Lawrence (1534-37); and thirty years later 
a party of the French Protestants, who were commonly called 
Huguenots, tried to plant a colony in what is now South Caro- 
lina, and then in Florida. The Spaniards destroyed the colony 
(1565); and the French ceased to settle in this pleasant 
region and to dispute the Spanish claims. 

The English and the Spaniards were friendly at this time, 
and until Elizabeth became queen of England (1558). She 
was a strong Protestant, and England became the most active 
Protestant country in Europe. From that time suspicion and 
hatred arose between the two countries. 

Their hostility was increased by the " English sea dogs," 
who were as good sailors as the Spaniards, and daring fighters. 
Partly on their own account, and partly with the good will 
of Queen Elizabeth, they began to trade with the Spanish 
colonies in America, then attacked them, and then tried to 
plant colonies of their own in America. 

The most noted of the sea dogs was Francis Drake, who, in 
1577, in a time of peace and without leave from his own 
government, went on a cruise to the Pacific. He sailed through 
the Strait of Magellan and then ran northward, capturing 



38 DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 

ships and plundering wherever he could. None but Spanish 
ships had ever before been seen in those waters. Drake 
wintered at a spot not far north of San Francisco, still called 
Drake's Bay. Then he bore off westward and got safely 
home in 1 580, thus making the second voyage around the 
world. Queen Elizabeth pretended to be very angry, but he 
gave her a part of his spoils of jewels, and she came on board 
his ship and then and there made him " Sir Francis Drake." 
He and other Englishmen again attacked Spanish towns and 
cities along various parts of the American coast. 

21. The Raleigh Colonies (1578-1587). — The two men 
who tried hardest to build up English colonies in America 
were the half brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter 
Raleigh. Gilbert vainly attempted to found a colony in 
Newfoundland under the first colonial charter ever granted to 
an Englishman (1578). Sir Walter Raleigh was not only a 
brave man and a good sailor, but a courtier who won the 
favor of the queen by laying his rich cloak on a muddy spot 
so that she might pass over dry-shod. His idea was to plant 
colonies which could live on the Indian trade, and at the 
same time be on hand to attack the Spanish colonies and 
fleets. 

Three different times between 1585 and 1587 he sent out 
settlers to Roanoke Island (map, page 49), on a part of the 
American coast, which Queen Elizabeth named Virginia after 
herself, as the Virgin Queen. All these colonies failed for lack 
of food or from disease or from attacks by Indians; and the 
Spaniards continued to claim all the coast along which their 
exploring vessels had ever sailed. 

22. The Invincible Armada (1588). — The Spaniards, who 
were the proudest people and the best soldiers and shipbuild- 
ers in all Europe, resolved to give the English sea dogs enough 
of fighting. Therefore they prepared a fleet which they called 
the " Invincible Armada," consisting of 137 vessels and carry- 
ing 27,000 men, and in 1588 they set sail for the conquest 
of England. 

They thought it would be an easy task; but the English 
swarmed out of their ports with a large fleet of handy vessels, 



THE ENGLISH AND THE SPANIARDS 39 

fought the Spaniards all the way up the English Channel, 
scared them with fire ships, and drove them into the sea to 
the east of England. While the Spaniards were trying to sail 
back around the north of Scotland, their fleet was scattered 
by a great tempest. Less than half the ships ever got back to 
Spain. 

The result was that the English found out the weakness of 
Spain. Therefore they could no longer be held back from 
taking a share of the land and the riches of America. After 
a few years the Spaniards and the English made peace again, 
but the English would not agree to keep out of the unoccupied 
lands in America claimed by the Spaniards. Thus the way 
was cleared for planting permanent English colonies. 

23. Summary. — This chapter describes how the New 
World was discovered, and the exploration of the coasts and 
the inland country down to the end of the war between Eng- 
land and Spain (1604). 

The Scandinavians, commonly called Norsemen, reached 
the northeast coast of America about the year 1000 but soon 
lost sight of it. Europeans began to think about sailing west 
when the Turks choked up the old routes to Asia by land and 
sea. Columbus was the first man to act on the belief that the 
world is a globe, by starting to sail west to Asia; in 1492 he 
discovered the West Indies and afterwards the coast of Central 
and South America. 

By a demarcation line, first suggested by the Pope, the 
Portuguese agreed to keep out of the " West Indies " if the 
Spaniards would keep out of the " East Indies." England 
and France did not recognize this division of the newly re- 
vealed parts of the world, and so discovered parts of the 
coast of North America on their own account. Magellan, 
for the Spaniards, rounded South America and discovered the 
Philippine Islands, and one of his ships went on around the 
world. 

The Spaniards made a few inland explorations and began 
to discover some of the rich land of the interior ; for the present 
area of the United States is one of the richest parts of the 
world for farming, fishing, and mining. The Spaniards met 



40 DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 

the Indians, some of whom had large towns and were partly 
civilized, but most of whom lived as savages in wild tribes. 
The Spaniards conquered Mexico and Peru, and discovered 
the Mississippi and the great plains west of it. They also 
coasted up the west side of the continent but failed to find 
the great harbors and valleys of the Pacific coast. 

The English sea dogs harassed and plundered the Spaniards 
both in the West Indies and on the Pacific coast, and one of 
them, Raleigh, tried to plant colonies in what was then called 
Virginia. The French also explored the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence River and vainly tried to plant colonies farther south. 
The Spaniards and the English finally went to war, and the 
Invincible Armada of the Spaniards was defeated in 1588. 
This disaster weakened the Spaniards so that they could not 
prevent the English from colonizing America. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. States, I. — Bourne, Spain in Am. — Brlgham 
and McF"arlane, Essentials of Geography, Second Bk. — Shepherd, Ilist. 
Atlas, 105-112, 184, 186, 190. 

Histories. Atkinson, Europ. Beginnings, chs. xix, xxi, xxii, xxvi- 
xxviii. — Becker, Beginnings, .17-55. — Channing, Un. States, I. chs. 
i-iii, V. — Cheyney, Europ. Background, chs. iii, iv. — Eggleston, Our 
First Century, 1-14. — Fiske, Discovery, I. chs. iv-vi, II; Old Virginia, 
I. ch. i. — Higginson, Am. Explorers, chs. i-ix. — Soulhworth, Builders 
of Our Country, I. chs. i, iii, vii, xv. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. i, 3, 9, 13. — Caldwell and Per- 
singer. Source Hist., 4-20. — Hart, Contemporaries, I. §§ 16-36, 44- 
48; Source Book, §§ 1-4, 9. — James, Readings in Am. Hist., §§ 1-7. — 
Old Sotith Leaflets, nos. 17, 20, 29, 39, 71, 87-90, 102, I15-119, 122. 

Side Lights and Stories. Cooper, Mercedes of Castile (Columbus). 
— Coryell, Diego Pinzon (Columbus). — Eastman, Indian Boyhood. — 
Lane and Hill, Am. Hist, in Literature, ch. i. — Liljencrantz, Randvar 
tJie Songsmith (Vinland). — Linderman, Indian Why Stories. — Munroe, 
White Conquerors of Mexico (Cortes). — Sinims, Vasconcelos (De Soto). 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, I. — Mentor, serial nos. 13, 22. — U. S. 
Bureau of Ethnology, Reports. — Winsor, America, I-IV. 

QUESTIONS 
(§ 9) I. Who were the Norsemen? 2. Mow did Leif Ericson discover 
America? 3. Why did the Turkish conquests lead to discoveries of new 
lands? 



42 DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS 

(§ lo) 4. Who was Christopher Columbus? 5. How did Columbus 
discover America? 6. What did Columbus think he had discovered? 
7. How much did Columbus discover on his first voyage? 

(§ 11) 8. Why were the Portuguese alarmed? 9. What was the "de- 
marcation line ' ? 

(§ 12) 10. What additional voyages did Columbus make? 11. What 
kind of man was Columbus? 

(§ 13) 12. How was Brazil settled? 13. How did the continent come to 
be calle 1 America? 14. What did Cabot discover? 15. What did Ver- 
razano discover? 

{§ 14) 16. How and when was the Pacific Ocean discovered? 17. De- 
scribe Magellan's voyage. 18. How did the Philippines become Spanish? 

(§ 15) 19 (For an essay). What did the Spanish explorers find in the 
interior of North America? 20. What are tjje principal mineral products 
of the interior? 21. What are the principal agricultural products of the 
interior? 22. Why is the eastern United States such a good farming 
section? 

(§ 16) 23. How did the Indians come to America? 24. What were the 
Indian tribes? 25. How did the Indians live? 26. What were Indian 
mounds and trails? 27. What kind of government did the Indians have? 

(§ 17) 28 (For an essay). Conquest of: {a) Mexxo, (6) Peru. 29. What 
made Spain rich? 

(§ 18) 30. What did De Soto disco\er? 31. What did Coronado dis- 
co\er? 32. What were the earliest Spanish towns in Florida and New 
Mexico? 

(§ '9) 33- What did Cabrillo discover on the Pacific? 34. Why did the 
S|>aniards fail to push their discoveries on the Pacific? 

(§ 20) 35. What early attempts did the French make to colonize 
America? 36. How did hostilities arise between the English and the 
Spanish? 37 (For an essay). Drake's cruise around the world. 

(§ 21) 38. What were the Gilbert and Raleigh colonies? 39. Why did 
the Raleigh colonies fail? 

(§ 22) 40. Why did the Spaniards send out the Invincible Armada? 
41 (For an essay). Defeat of the Armada. 



CHAPTER III 
FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS (1607-1660) 

24. Immigrants to the New World (1492-1700). — During 

the first hundred years after the discovery of America, all the 
Europeans who actually colonized America were Catholic 
Spaniards and Portuguese. They belonged to the Latin race ; 
that is, they were in part descended from the ancient Romans, 
and spoke languages derived from the Latin tongue. In the 
next hundred years (1600 to 1700) came another group, made 
up of English, Dutch, Swedish, and German colonists, nearly 
all Protestants. They sprang from the Teutonic races of 
northern Europe, who were descended in great part from the 
ancient Germans and their relatives, the Scandinavians. 

What led these various people to leave their old and settled 
lands for the New World? Among the reasons were the 
following: (i) Farmers and workmen were poor and strug- 
gling, and hoped for a better living for themselves and their 
children in a new country. (2) Business men were attracted 
by the good chances in the fur trade and fisheries. (3) Spec- 
ulators fancied that rich mines of gold and silver would be 
found. (4) Some men who had means and influence at home 
liked the idea of becoming social and political leaders in a new 
colony. (5) A few came over to get away from what they 
thought was interference with their religious faith; among 
them were Catholics, English Puritans, and German Protes- 
tants. (6) Many thousands of convicts and negro slaves 
were taken across the ocean against their will. 

25. Crossing the Sea. — Emigration from Europe was a 
serious thing. The ships were all small, and the whole space 
for passengers was below the decks. On some ships the sailors 
spread sand over the bottom of the hold ; there the passengers 
built a fire and grouped around it as though they were on 
land. All the travelers, even the richest, were subject to 

hart's sch. hist. — 3 43 



44 FIRST ENGLISH SETTLE^IENTS 

long and miserable voyages — three weeks to two or three 
months on the sea. Provisions were scanty and often bad. 
One passenger says, " There was no rest night or day — it was 
a Babel. I have never in my life heard of such a disorderly 
ship. It was confusion without end." If a disease broke 
out, such as the dangerous " ship fever," it might run through 
the whole company. 

Once arrived in the New World, the first colonists had to 
build their own houses and clear the land by cutting down 
the trees. At first they did not know how to hunt for game or 
to raise Indian corn; and several of the early English colonies 

had a " starving time " and would 
have died out, had not food been 
brought to them from England. 
The Indians could give little help, 
for often they had not enough for 
themselves. 

So little was known of the country 
back of the coast that the early 
settlers missed the best land, and 
settled in low and marshy ground, 
The anopheles mosquito, which bccause it was con\'enlent to the 

spreads malaria, stands on its t t ^.i i ^ r r 

jjg^jj sea. Hence they caught levers; tor 

it was not till our time that people 
learned that malarial fever is caused by the bite of a mos- 
quito which is bred in stagnant water. What with disease, 
famine, and Indian attacks, more than three fourths of the 
English who landed within the first twenty years died not 
long after their arrival. 

26. The English Puritans (1603-1620). — Among the 
early English settlers were many Protestants who inclined to 
strict doctrines. They thought that the Reformation in the 
English Church (§5) had not gone far enough; and they held 
meetings, wrote books, and preached sermons in favor of 
what they declared to be a purer kind of religion — hence they 
were called " Puritans." Part of the Puritans, who claimed 
the right of every congregation to choose its own minister, 
were called " Independents " or " Separatists." 




ENGLISH PURITANS AND TRADERS 45 

When Queen Elizabeth died (1603), a Scotchman, James I, 
came to the throne of England. He looked upon the Puritans 
as enemies who were trying to take away part of his royal 
power. When a delegation of them came to ask him for re- 
forms in the church, his answer was, " I shall make them con- 
form themselves [that is, accept the established church], or 
I will harry them out of the land or else do worse." And the 
king ordered many of the Puritans to be arrested and im- 
prisoned. Therefore, when they heard of plans for planting 
colonies in the New World, some of the Puritans were eager 
to go as emigrants, so as to be free from the control of the 
king and to worship in what they considered the real Christian 
manner. 

27. English Trading Companies (1606-1607). — The main 
reason for planting English colonies in America was the belief 
that America was a rich and fruitful land where profits could 
be made. Large sums had first to be spent in fitting out a 
colony, and a new method was now tried for bringing the 
necessary means together. This was the joint stock trading 
company, in which investors could buy shares; if the com- 
pany failed they could lose only what they had put into it, 
and not their whole fortunes. 

In 1606 a number of English gentlemen of wealth joined 
in securing from King James a charter which would give 
the right to form two companies to plant colonies in North 
America. One of these, the London Company, was to send 
out colonists to the southern part of the coast, and the other, 
the Plymouth Company, was to settle farther north. The 
attempt of the Plymouth Company to make a settlement on 
what is now the coast of Maine was a failure. The London 
Company, however, in 1607 sent an expedition in three ships 
which anchored a little way up the James River (map, page 
49). There the 104 colonists landed and built a town, which 
they named Jamestown for their king. 

This was a bold step, for the Spanish government had 
warned the English that Virginia was their territory and that 
they would stamp out the little colony. But the English 
insisted that John Cabot had " discovered these northern 



46 FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 

parts " (§ 13); and they paid no attention to Spanish claims 
upon coasts where Spain had no colonies and showed no in- 
tention of settling. 

28. Virginia, the First Southern Colony (1607-16 18). — The 
James River colony, which from the first was called Virginia, 
was for a time all but a failure. The Indians in the neighbor- 
hood offered little trade, and soon became hostile. The 
English searched for gold mines and found none. The few 
farmers did not understand the soil of Virginia; and the 
weavers, tanners, wine makers, and silk workers whom the 
company sent out found no suitable material on which to 
work. 

Though the owners of the Virginia colony in England were 
losing money, they held together, and in 1609 secured a new 
charter giving them a definite stretch of the coast, 400 miles 
lortg, and thence back into the wilderness " up into the Land 
throughout from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest." The 
company supposed that the Pacific Ocean was only a few 
hundred miles back, about where Lake Erie lies. 

The man who appears as the biggest and best in the little 
colony was Captain John Smith, who had been a sailor, 
soldier, explorer, and map maker. He was almost the only 
settler who had the curiosity to explore the interior. He 
explored once too often, for he was caught by a band of Indian 
braves and delivered over to the powerful chief Wahunsona- 
cock, commonly called Powhatan. Some years later in 
England, Smith published a statement that the Indians were 
on the point of knocking out his brains when Pocahontas, 
the little daughter of the chief, rushed forward and saved 
him from the club. The English afterwards captured Poca- 
hontas, and thus compelled her father to keep peace with 
them. Then she married one of the colonists, John Rolfe. 

About ten years after the founding of the colony, the 
Virginians realized that they had the best of land for raising 
tobacco. Some of Sir Walter Raleigh's men (§21) had 
brought back the weed from America, and (so says tradition) 
Raleigh taught Queen Elizabeth to smoke. King James 
hated tobacco and wrote a violent book against it, but his 



VIRGINIA COLONY 



47 




In April, 1614, Pocahontas was married to John Rolfe 

subjects were eager to buy the fragrant plant at three shil- 
Hngs (about 75 cents in our money) a pound. From that time 
on, tobacco was the main crop and the principal source of 
wealth for Virginia and for the neighboring lands. 

29. Later Virginia (1619-1660). — For a time the Virginia 
colonists were looked upon as existing only to make money 
for their company; but in 1619 they were allowed to hold an 
" assembly " of twenty- two members elected by their neigh- 
bors. This was the first American legislature. It sat several 
days and passed laws against idleness, gambling, drunkenness, 
fine clothes, Sabbath breaking, and other offenses. The 
Virginians never gave up this precious privilege of elect- 
ing an assembly, and as fast as new colonies were planted 
they insisted on the same right to take part in governing 
themselves. 

The London Company fell under the displeasure of the king, 
and in 1624 the charter was taken away. Of the 14,000 
immigrants who had gone out, only 1200 were then left alive. 



48 



FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 



Thereafter Virginia was called a " royal colony " or " prov- 
ince," and had to accept a governor appointed by the king. 
Tobacco made it prosperous, but gradually a good part of 
the rich land fell into the hands of a small class of wealthy 
planters. In the year when the first assembly met, the Vir- 




Africans were brought to Virginia by the shipload to be sold as slaves 

ginians bought the first African slaves imported into the area 
of the present United States; and in the course of time the 
slave owners became the leading class in the colony, 

30. Plymouth Colony (1620-1660). — Some of those ex- 
treme Puritans who were called Separatists had been try- 
ing to carry on a little church in the village of Scrooby, near 
the east coast of Enghmd. They were so disturbed by the 
authorities of the state church that they crossed over to 
Holland and lived for a time in the Protestant city of Leyden. 
Still they longed to have their children brought up in the 



PLYMOUTH COLONY 



49 




English 
[ J Dutch 

Swedish 1638-55 
Dutch 1655-64 
Present state boundaries 

SCALE OF MIL ES 

5 60 



Settlements and settled areas, i66o 

English fashion, and 
therefore they formed 
a plan to settle across 
the ocean. Friends in 
London loaned them 
money, and they char- 
tered the ship May- 
flower, and in 1620 
steered for America. 

"The Pilgrim 
Fathers " is the name 
long since given to the men of this first shipload and others 
that followed. They meant to settle somewhere south of the 
Hudson River, but when they sighted land near the point of 
Cape Cod they decided to stay on the New England coast. 
As they had no charter or permission to settle there, they drew 
up a document, later called the " Mayflower Compact," by 






50 FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 

which it was agreed " to combine ourselves together into a 
civil body politic . . . and by virtue hereof, to enact . . . 
such just and equal laws ... as shall be thought most meet 
and convenient for the general good." This is the first consti- 
tution ever made by Americans. December 21, 1620, they 
landed near a large bowlder, now famous as " Plymouth 
Rock"; and along the sheltered harbor they built a little 
town which they called Plymouth. 

At the end of the winter only about half the number were 
left alive, but they would not give up. A few more emigrants 
from England joined them, and their success in trading for 
beaver skins and in catching fish carried them through starva- 
tion, sickness, and the danger from Indians. The most inter- 
esting man in the colony was Captain Myles Standish, whose 
small body was full of courage. He was the commander 
against hostile Indians, and a true-hearted Pilgrim Father. 

Wherever the Spaniards went they obeyed laws made for 
them in their home country, and took orders from governors 
appointed from Spain. On the other hand, the Plymouth 
people, like their brethren in Virginia, knew how to govern 
themselves. For a long time all their laws were made by 
the grown men assembled in a mass meeting. Later the little 
colony was divided into sections called " towns," each of which 
had its own town meeting; and they all sent delegates to a 
little assembly very much like that in Virginia. 

31. Massachusetts Colony (1629-1640). — In 1629 a body 
of Puritan gentlemen in England got from King Charles I a 
charter issued to " the Governor and Company of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England." They were to possess the 
sea front between a line three miles north of the Merrimack 
River and a line three miles south of the Charles River, 
and thence westward to the " South Sea" ; that is, to the 
Pacific Ocean. 

One of the leaders in this company was a gentleman named 
John Winthrop, who in 1630 led overseas a colony of a thousand 
people. They built villages at Boston, Cambridge, and other 
places near Massachusetts Bay, and took in Salem and some 
other little settlements already planted. They brought with 



MASSACHUSETTS COLONY 



51 



them live stock, seeds, tools, and many hired servants, and 
began at once to break ground for farms. Nearly every place 
that they settled prospered. 

John Winthrop was for some years the governor of the little 
community, but he 
and his supporters 
were obliged to let 
the people share in 
their own govern- 
ment. The "great 
emigration," as 
this movement was 
called, went on for 
ten years. A large 
part of the farmers 
became "free- 
men," or stock- 
holders of the com- 
pany, and met 
every year in what 
was called the 
" General Court." 
When that meeting 
became clumsy, they set up an elective assembly to make 
laws, which from that day to this has been called the General 
Court of Massachusetts. 

32. Growth of Massachusetts (1640-1660). — In a short 
time the settlers were raising their own food. Some of them 
became fishermen and found a market for their catch down 
in the West Indies, bringing back sugar, tropical fruits, and 
hard silver dollars that had come from Mexico. New Eng- 
land contained the best of timber for building ships. The 
colonists discovered iron ore, and began to make pig iron in 
little charcoal furnaces. They traded with the Indians for 
furs. They were even troubled with the high cost of living, 
and voted that nobody should make a profit of more than 
one third on goods brought from England. 

Though most of the people of the great emigration were 



' ' "'^il "• 


^Mm. 


^ ■ ' t 


V 


' ,., ^ 


, P' 


f. -^ - 


-%*- 



House in Salem, built about 1662. This is the place made 
famous by Hawthorne in The House of the Seven Gables 



52 



FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 



members of the Church of England, they soon gave up the 
Prayer Book of that church and became Separatists. Then 
an effort was made to separate from the Separatists. Rever- 
end Roger WilHams of Salem was so outspoken that the gov- 
ernment of the colony drove him out. In 1637 Mrs. Anne 
Hutchinson, a friend of Roger Williams, was brought before 
the General Court on the charge that she was not sound in her 
religious doctrines. Her real offense was that she held meet- 
ings for women in which they criticized the ministers. She 

showed herself quite the 
equal of any of her judges, 
especially in her knowledge 
of the Bible and in her 
ability to argue; but her 
enemies had the votes, and 
they banished her from the 
colony. 

33. Maryland (1632- 
1660). — If Puritans could 
find a place in America 
where they could live and 
worship God in their own 
way, why should not Eng- 
lish Catholics have the 
same privilege? In 1632 
King Charles I granted to 
a wealthy Catholic, Cecil 
Calvert (commonly called 
Lord Baltimore), a new 
kind of colonial charter. Baltimore was made " Lord Pro- 
prietary," with the right to appoint a governor and to make 
laws with the consent of the settlers. The grant of land 
was to extend from the Potomac River northward to the 40th 
degree of north latitude. The next year about two hundred 
people, nearly all Catholics, sailed for Baltimore's territory, 
which he called Maryland, in honor of Henrietta Maria, then 
queen of England. 

The most notable thing about Maryland was its Toleration 




Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore. This 
portrait shows the rich dress of an English 
Cavalier (§ 41) 



MARYLAND AND NEW ENGLAND 53 

Act, by which all believers in Christianity were allowed to 
worship privately or publicly in their own way. This was one 
of the first laws in the history of the world which admitted that 
a man might have a right to believe and practice one religion, 
when his rulers had declared another to be the right religion. 
Maryland began to grow tobacco, and attracted so many 
settlers that the Protestants were soon more numerous than 
the Catholics. Most of the time during a century and a half 
the Baltimore family remained proprietors, appointed the 
governors, and helped to make the laws. 

34. Connecticut and New Haven (1636-1660). — While 
Maryland was being settled, a group of colonies was estab- 
lished in New England, none of which had any charter or 
grant from the English government. The first of these was 
Connecticut, founded by Rev. Thomas Hooker. He had 
brought over a company of about fifty families from England 
to Cambridge, Massachusetts, but they were not content 
there, and in 1636 he led his company westward to the Con- 
necticut River. There they founded Hartford and other 
villages in the neighborhood. Since they had no charter 
they established a little government for themselves, and in 
1639 called an assembly that drew up a brief document known 
as " The Fundamental Orders," which was somewhat like one 
of our modern state constitutions. 

In 1638 a group of families under Rev. John Davenport 
settled at New Haven, and several villages grew up near 
Long Island Sound, with New Haven as the center. They 
formed a colonial assembly, and gathered themselves together 
in the self-made colony of New Haven. The two settle- 
ments found the Dutch trying to establish themselves on the 
Connecticut. 

As the Connecticut settlers were at odds with the Indians, 
a band of soldiers and Indian allies attacked the winter camp 
of the Pequot tribe and killed nearly all the men, women, and 
children (1637). This was the white man's way of teaching 
the Indians the beauty of peace! 

35. Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire (1630- 
1660). — A third self-planted New England colony was Rhode 



54 



FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 



Island. The founder was Rev. Roger Williams (§32), who in 
1636 brought a few people together at Providence. Williams 
believed strongly that no state had a right to tell anybody to 
worship in any particular way. Hence in his little colony he 
welcomed men of various beliefs, including Baptists and 
Quakers. Jews were admitted later. 

Williams declared that he was not interested in " the chil- 
dren's toys of land, meadow, government, etc.," but cared 

much for " a great 
number of weak 
and distressed 
souls flying hither 
from old and New 
England." Natur- 
ally the Puritan 
neighbors did not 
like the Rhode 
Islanders. Yet 
none of the early 
colonists were so 
successful as 

Old blockhouse in North Edgecomb, Maiae. The projecting Williams in CCtting' 
upper story and the narrow windows were for purposes of • 1 1 r 

defense the gOod Will of 

the Indians, for he 
was a man who kept his word with them. For a time Rhode 
Island was made up of four or five little independent settle- 
ments, but at last they united in one assembly, which elected a 
governor. 

Many efforts were made to place colonies on the strip of 
coast called Maine (about 1630), but the land grants were 
tangled up and no settlement succeeded. Part of it was occu- 
pied by Plymouth, and later it was annexed to Massachusetts. 

New Hampshire was settled at first in separate little towns, 
beginning in 1630, which slowly united into one government 
for common purposes; but the colony had no charter, and for 
a long time its people joined in the Massachusetts government. 

36. The Two Sections. — The Englishmen who settled 
the southern colonies and those who settled the New Eng- 




THE TWO SECTIONS 



55 



land colonies came from about the same class in England. 
Most of them were farmers, farm servants, shopkeepers, and 
some were ne'er-do-wells. Nevertheless the two sections had 
different ways of at- 
tending to their local 
concerns. The south- 
ern colonists settled 
mostly on plantations; 
that is, on scattered 
farms each with an 
owner's house and 
quarters for white ser- 
vants and negro slaves. 
Throughout New Eng- 
land the people settled 
in villages, partly for 
safety, and partly so 
that they could all be 
near the village church. 
The southerners had 
" parishes " which in- 
cluded all the settlers 
who went to one 
church. The people 
of the parish held ves- 
try meetings for some 
local matters; but 
most of the local affairs 
were settled by boards 
called County Courts 
or Courts of Quarter 




Captain Morgan came to this country in 1636, built a 
fortified bloclchouse on the Connecticut River, and 
was a prominent fighter in the early Indian wars 



Sessions, appointed by 

the governor from 

among the richest and 

most public-spirited planters. These boards laid taxes, built 

roads and bridges, and held the elections. 

In New England the people could easily gather in a " town 
meeting," which was a mass meeting of all the voters (§ 30). 



56 FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 

Since most of the land-owning farmers were voters, the system 
gave them " local self-government"; that is, the opportunity 
to carry on their own affairs. 

The only political union of colonies was the so-called New 
England Confederation, formed by Plymouth, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and New Haven in 1643. They drew up a doc- 
ument called " Articles of Confederation," some of the phrases 
of which can be found in our present national Constitution. 
Their main purpose was to present a strong front against the 
Dutch, who were trying to keep up a trading post on the 
Connecticut River. After New Netherland was annexed by 
the English (1664), the need of the Confederation grew less 
and it eventually died out. 

37. Summary. — -This chapter deals with the planting of 
English colonies in two groups, one in New England and the 
other in the South, during the first half of the seventeenth 
century. 

Immigration was a tedious process, for the voyages were 
full of hardship and the first colonists suffered from famine 
and disease. 

English Puritans and Catholics desired to be free from 
the pressure of the estiiblished English Church, and men 
of means desired to make a profit. The two motives 
combined in bringing about the planting of the following 
colonies: 

(i) Virginia was founded in 1607 by the London Company. 
After heavy losses, the raising of tobacco became the main 
industry. In 1619 the Virginians formed the first colonial 
assembly, or legislature, and they bought the first negro slaves 
imported into our country. 

(2) Plymouth was founded by extreme Puritans in 1620. 
After barely living through the first winter, they established 
themselves and set up a little colonial government of their 
own. 

(3) Massachusetts (1630), founded by a strong body of 
moderate Puritans, was successful from the start in ship- 
building, trading, and farming. 

(4) Maryland was founded in 1632 by Catholics, who were 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 57 

soon outnumbered by Protestants. This was the first pro- 
prietary colony and was governed by the Baltimore family. 
The principal industry was the raising of tobacco. 

(5) Connecticut was founded without any company or 
proprietor or grant behind it, the first of the self-planted col- 
onies (1636). It lived by agriculture and trading with the 
Indians. 

(6) New Haven (1638) was a similar self-planted colony 
without any charter. 

(7) Rhode Island (1636) was planted by Rev. Roger Wil- 
liams and others who were too radical to suit the people of 
Massachusetts. Other little towns joined, and the people 
lived by farming, fishing, and trading. 

(8) New Hampshire (1630) was a farming settlement with- 
out a charter. 

(9) Maine (1630) was a scattered group of villages and farms 
without a colonial government. 

The northern colonies were settled in villages called towns; 
the southern, in plantations or separate farms. Four of the 
New England colonies united in a little federal union called 
the New England Confederation, which is the first suggestion 
of anything like our present federal government. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. States, II. — Epoch Maps, no. 2. — Shepherd, 
Hist. Atlas, 185, 189, 190, 193. 

Histories. Charming, Un. States, I. chs. vi-xv, xviii. — Eggleston, 
Our First Century, 14-100. — Fiske, Old Virginia, I. chs. ii-ix; New 
Engl., 50-178. — Higginson, Am. Explorers, chs. x, xi, xiv, xv. — South- 
worth, Builders of Our Country, I. chs. viii-xi, xix. — Tyler, England in 
Am., 30-49, 62-72, 82-146. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 7, 16,25, 27, 29, 31, 36. — Caldwell 
and Persinger, Source Hist., 20-28, 36-71. — Hart, Contemporaries, I, 
§§49-75, 90-120, 127-131; Source Book, §§5-21; Source Readers, I. 
§§10-65 passim. — Hill, Liberty Docs., chs. i-vi. — MacDonald, Doc. 
Source Book, nos. 1-14; Select Charters, nos. 1-22. — Old South Leaflets, 
nos. 7, 8, 48-55, 66, 67, 77, 100, 120, 121, 142-178 passim. 

Side Lights and Stories. Coffin, Old Times in the Cols. — Cooke, 
Stories of the Old Dominion. — Gordy, Am. Leaders and Heroes, chs. 
iv, vi, vii. — Hawthorne, Grandfather' s Chair, pt. i. chs. i-ii, v-xi. — Leslie, 



58 FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS 

Saxby (Pilgrims and Puritans). — Longfellow, Myles Slandish. — Otis, 
Ricfiard of Jamestown; Mary of Plymouth; Ruth of Boston; Calvert of 
Maryland. — Tappan, Letters from Colonial Children, chs. i, ii, v-xii. 

Pictures. Aver>', Un. States, II. — Wilson, Am. People, I. — Winsor, 
America, III, IV.' 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 24) I. What was the first group of American colonists? 2. What 
was the second group? 3. Why did Europeans want to colonize America? 

(§ 25) 4. How did people cross the ocean? 5. Why did so many of 
the early colonists perish? 

(§ 26) 6. Who were the Puritans? 7. Why did the Puritans wish to 
leave England? 8 (For an essay). Persecution of the Puritans. 

(§ 27) 9. What were the trading companies? 10. Name two of the 
English colonization companies. 

(§ 28) II (For an essay). Describe the colony of Virginia. 12. Why 
did the colony of Virginia go through hard times? 13. What did V'ir- 
ginia secure by the charter of 1609? 14. What did John Smith do for 
the colony of Virginia? 15 (For an essay). Describe the life of Indians 
in Virginia. 16. How did tobacco come into use? 

(§ 29) 17. What was the first American legislature? 18. How did 
Virginia become a royal colony? 19. How did the first negro slaves 
come into the English colonies? 

(§ 30) 20. Why did English Puritans settle in Holland? 21. How did 
the Pilgrim Fathers come to Plymouth? 22. What was the Mayflower 
Compact? 23 (For an essay). Life and adventures of Captain Myles 
Standish. 24. How did towns spring up in Plymouth? 

(§ 31) 25. What was the Massachusetts Bay Company? 26. How was 
the Massachusetts Colony planted? 27. How was Massachusetts gov- 
erned? 

(§ 32) 28. How did the people of Massachusetts make a living? 29. 
Why were Roger Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson banished? 

(§ 33) 30. How was Maryland settled? 31. What was the Toleration 
Act? 

(§ 34) 32. How was Connecticut settled? 33. How was New Haven 
settled? 34 (For an essay). Events of the Pequot War. 

(§ 35) 35- How was Rhode Island settled? 36 (For an essay). An 
account of Roger Williams. 37. How was Maine settled? 38. How was 
New Hampshire settled? 

(§ 36) 39. What was the difference between the New England and 
the southern methods of settlement? 40. What was the town meeting? 
41. What was the New England Confederation? 



CHAPTER IV 



RIVALS AND NEW COLONIES (1604^1689) 

38. French Settlements in America (1604-1660). — While 
the English colonies were growing up, three other European 
nations — France, Holland, and Sweden — ^ planted settlements 
near by. The French strongly desired the profitable fur trade 
of the St. Lawrence, and also wished to Christianize the 
heathen Indians. Their missionaries went out among the 
wild tribes and endured hardship, poverty, and death; some 
of them were made martyrs by the Indians whom they came 
to save. The 
French were also 
interested in the 
fisheries on the 
shallows or 
" banks " south- 
east of New- 
foundland ; but 
their first perma- 
nent settlement 
was Port Royal 
on the Bay of 
Fundy (1604). 
They named the 
adjacent country 
Acadia. 

A more vigorous colony was planted by Samuel de Cham- 
plain at Quebec in 1608, and there has been a town of Quebec 
ever since, on that spot. Champlain was a captain in the 
French navy, and one of the boldest of explorers. He sought 
the friendship of the Indians who controlled the routes from 
the Great Lakes. When a party of their warriors asked him 
to help them against the fierce and hostile Iroquois, commonly 




Location of the " Five Nations " of Iroquois, enlarged by the 
adoption of the Tuscaroras in 1715 to the "Six Nations." 
They counted about 2500 warriors 



HART S SCH. HIST. 



59 



6o 



RIVALS AND NEW COLONIES 



called the "Five Nations," living to the southward, he and 
two other Frenchmen agreed to go along with them. They 
paddled nearly the whole length of a sheet of water since known 
as Lake Champlain, till they met a party of four hundred of 
the Iroquois. With their harquebuses (a sort of awkward 
gun), the Frenchmen drove the enemy off in great confusion. 
This victory drew upon the French the rage of the Iroquois, 
who for nearly a hundred years raided the French settlements, 
killing and burning. They made it unsafe to travel upon 
Lake Ontario or Lake Erie, and therefore Champlain and his 
successors followed up the Ottawa River and crossed over the 




The explorations and routes 
of French explorers in 
North America 



height of land to Lake 
Huron. Many farm- 
ers settled along the 
St. Lawrence, and a 
town was speedily 
built at Montreal 
w h i c h became the 
center of the colony of New France. Thence missionaries and 
fur traders set out for the interior, and planted missions and 
trading posts on the Great Lakes as far west as Lake Michigan 
and Lake Superior. 



THE FRENCH IN THE WEST 6l 

39. Exploration of the Mississippi by the French (1660- 
1684). — From the Indians the French heard tales of a great 
river to the westward which they thought might be the Col- 
orado. An adventurous young man named La Salle conceived 
the idea of finding that river. He ventured upon Lake Erie, 
which till then had hardly been visited by white men, and ex- 
plored the country south of the lake. While he went back 
to the St. Lawrence to get together men and means to reach 
the great river, a missionary, Father Marquette, and a trader 
named Joliet together went up the Fox River, crossed to the 
Wisconsin River, and so down to the Mississippi River, which 
they followed for a long distance (1673) in the hope of reach- 
ing the sea. 

La Salle was backed by the king of France, who gave him 
authority to discover and explore new lands for the king. 
With him went a missionary, Father Hennepin, who followed 
the river up to the Falls of St. Anthony, now the site of Min- 
neapolis. After many hardships and delays. La Salle and his 
company went from Lake Michigan up the Chicago River, 
crossed a short portage, and paddled their canoes down the 
Illinois River to its mouth, and then on down the Mississippi 
until they reached the salt water of the delta (1682). Thus 
the region that we now call the West was opened to Euro- 
peans. 

La Salle reported that along the banks lay " the most beauti- 
ful country in the world," and he talks of " cotton, cochineal, 
nuts, entire forests of mulberry trees, salt, slate, coal, vines, 
apple trees." According to the usual practice of claiming 
territory in America, the king of France considered himself 
entitled by La Salle's discoveries to the immense area drained 
by all the streams that flow into the Mississippi River 
and its branches. 

La Salle named the region Louisiana for his royal master, 
who was so pleased that he fitted out a fleet with which the 
explorer expected to reach the mouth of the Mississippi River 
by sea (1684). La Salle missed the stream, landed at Mata- 
gorda Bay in what is now Texas, and after months of misery 
for the whole party, was killed by one of his own men. No 



62 



RI\'.\LS AND NEW COLONIES 



Frenchman planted permanent colonies any\vhere in Louisi- 
ana till fifteen years later; but the French, who were the first 
to explore the Mississippi, laid claim to the whole of its mag- 
nificent basin. 

40. The Dutch and the Swedes in America (1609-1660). — 
The early French and English colonies were far apart and 
separated by wide stretches of woods and mountains. A 
third group of European colonists took up land between the 
two groups of English colonies — the southern and the New 
England. These were the Dutch, whose home country of 
" the Netherlands " was usually called Holland by the Eng- 
lish. These prosperous, seafaring people had been ruled by 
the king of Spain, but they revolted and set up a federal 
government of their own in 1579; and they continued to 
fight the Spaniards at intervals for nearly seventy years. 
They w'ere rich traders and manufacturers, and were so strong 
at sea that they attacked and captured a good part of the 
Portuguese possessions in southern Asia. That is how modern 
Holland comes to own Java, Sumatra, and other Asiatic 
islands. 




Ktplica lit Htiiry Hudsun's Half Moon. This ship was sent to the United States 
by Holland in 1909 

At the same time they turned their attention westward and 
in 1609 sent out Henry Hudson, an Englishman, to search 



DUTCH AND SWEDES IN AMERICA 63 

for a new water route to India. In his ship, the Half Moon, 
he came into the bay now called New York harbor, and 
sailed up the stream afterwards called Hudson River for its 
discoverer. Five years later (1614) a little post was founded 
on the rocky island of Manhattan, and was called New 
Amsterdam (map, page 49). This was the beginning of the 
city of New York. In 162 1 the Dutch chartered a West India 
Company, which began to plant trading posts on the Connect- 




A school for children of the burgher class in New Axasterdam 



icut, Hudson, and Delaware rivers; and they called the whole 
region " New Netherland." New Amsterdam was well placed, 
for the Hudson led up into the country of the Iroquois, whose 
friendship the traders cultivated. The Dutch built a post at 
Fort Orange (now Albany), and others in the Mohawk Valley. 
Along with the traders came Dutch farmers, and the West 
India Company granted tracts of land to large owners called 
" patroons," who leased farms to immigrants. 

The Dutch were not so fortunate on the Connecticut, where 
English settlers came and crowded them out (§ 34). On 
the Delaware River also their claim was disputed by Sweden, 
which in 1638 sent out a colony and built a little post called 
Fort Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware). The Swedes 



64 RIVALS AND NEW COLONIES 

tried to send over enough settlers to hold the country, but 
were unable to resist the Dutch. After the Dutch annexed 
the little settlement (1655), there was an end of the Swedish 
colony of New Sweden. 

The Dutchmen were good traders but poor colonizers. 
Some of the inhabitants complained that the public school in 
New Amsterdam was irregular and ill taught; that there was 
no orphan asylum; that the governor, Stuyvesant, famous for 
his wooden leg, " was like a peacock, with great state and 
pomp." When one of the burghers threatened to complain 
to the Dutch government in Holland, Stuyvesant said, " I 
will make him a foot shorter, and send the pieces to Holland, 
and let him appeal in that way." 

41. The English Revolution and Commonwealth (1640- 
1663). — Why did England allow the Dutch and the Swedes 
to plant colonies that pressed against Connecticut on the 
one side and Maryland on the other? Simply because of 
troubles at home which took all the energies of England. 
The English Parliament, or national legislature, included the 
elected House of Commons, in which the Puritans became 
strong. King James I (§ 26) and his son, Charles I, tried to 
govern England without the aid of Parliament. In 1642 the 
Royalist defenders of the king (who were often called " Cava- 
liers ") and the Puritans (who were called " Roundheads ") 
began to fight each other in a civil war. The Royalists had 
the best of it for a time, but a Puritan officer named Oliver 
Cromwell organized a Roundhead cavalry known as the " Iron- 
sides " and defeated the Ro^^alists. King Charles was im- 
prisoned, tried, and executed. 

Then a Commonwealth (which is what we call a republic) 
was set up, with Cromwell at the head. A little later he be- 
came " Lord Protector," and almost king. Cromwell was a 
great ruler. One of his exploits was to send out a fleet which 
captured the island of Jamaica from the Spaniards; this was 
the first loss of a Spanish colony. A few English Cavaliers 
found their way to Virginia and Maryland during the struggle. 

Soon after Cromwell died, the Commonwealth collapsed, 
and Charles II, the son of the late king, was called to the 



COMMONWEALTH AND DUTCH TRADE 



65 



throne. This arrangement, commonly called the "Restora- 
tion," was accepted by all the colonies in America, and they 
took orders from the new government on the same terms as 
before the English civil war. The people of Connecticut 
made friends with the new king, and in 1662 received from him 
a charter for a new colony of Connecticut, which included 
both the Connecticut and the New Haven colonies. The next 
year Rhode Island also received a charter which was so liberal 
that the little colony became almost a republic. 

42. Conquest of New York (1664). — During the Common- 
wealth, Holland and England fell to quarreling. The English 




One of the earliest views of New Amsterdam. From a sketch made by a 
Dutch officer in 163s 

had established an East India Company which competed with 
the Dutch for the Asiatic trade. The Dutch merchant ships 
in Europe also carried goods which the English would have 
liked to handle. The result was a contest of two kinds: 
(i) The rival countries fought three fierce naval wars (1652- 
1674). (2) The English passed a series of laws called the 
Navigation Acts, or Acts of Trade (beginning in 1651), which 
were intended to prevent any but English ships from trading 
with the English colonies. 



66 



RIV.\LS AXD NEW COLONIES 



The English also disliked the feeble but troublesome Dutch 
colonies on the Hudson and Delaware rivers; and in 1664 they 
sent out a fleet which appeared before the town of New Am- 
sterdam and demanded its surrender, on the ground that this 
was English soil and the Dutch had no right to be there. 
There was nothing to do but to surrender, and with the town 

went all the rest of the 
Dutch settlements. 
Thus the English 
came at last to pos- 
sess the whole stretch 
of coast from Maine 
to \'irginia. 

43. New York and 
New Jersey (1664- 
1702). — The next 
step was to organize 
this splendid country. 
King Charles II had 
granted to his brother 
James, Duke of York, 
a charter making him 
the proprietor of all 
the territory between 




New Jersey, Delaware, and eastern Pennsylvania 



the Connecticut 
River and the Dela- 
ware. James set off the tract between the Delaware River 
and the Hudson and gave it (1664) to two of his friends, 
Berkeley and Carteret, who founded the two colonies of 
West New Jersey and East New Jersey. James did not 
attempt to take away the territory of the colony of Con- 
necticut, but set up a new colony, New York, which in- 
cluded the valley of the Hudson and Long Island; and the 
little town of New Amsterdam was renamed New York. In 
1686 Dongan, who was then governor of the colony, granted 
a city charter to the town, which had long had a mayor, 
and it thus became the first regularly organized American 
city. 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 67 

Most of the Dutch and Swedes in all this territory stayed 
under the English system, and new settlers came out from 
England. The Jerseys received a mixed population: Scotch 
Presbyterians, Quakers, Church of England people, and 
Puritans from New England. The two settlements were 
finally united (1702) into the one colony of New Jersey. 

When King Charles II died, the Duke of York became 
King James II (1685). New York was then transformed, like 
Virginia (§ 29), into a " province " or royal colony with a 
governor appointed from England; like Virginia it had a 
colonial assembly, which made local laws. 

44. Pennsylvania and Delaware (1681-1689). — The rich 
and beautiful country west of the Delaware River was not 
granted to the Duke of York and therefore remained within 
the power of King Charles II. In 168 1 Charles granted it to 
his personal friend, William Penn, son of a wealthy admiral 
and at the same time a member of the religious sect of Quakers. 
The new province was to extend three degrees (about 200 miles) 
along the Delaware River and thence about 300 miles west- 
ward. It was called Pennsylvania, which means " Penn's 
woodland." 

Penn was a man of wealth and planted his colony on a larger 
scale than any of the earlier settlements. Never up to this 
time had such a stream of people crossed the Atlantic as now 
came to the new colony. Penn welcomed Englishmen, Welsh- 
men, and Presbyterian Scotch-Irishmen, who always liked the 
adventure and variety of frontier life. He had a place for 
Quakers, for Jews, for Baptists, and other then unpopular 
sects. He advertised his lands in Germany and brought 
over the first group of German colonists that ever came to 
America. 

Penn at once laid out along the Delaware a city with 
broad streets, crossing at right angles, which he named Phila- 
delphia for an ancient city of Asia Minor, the name meaning 
" brotherly love." The proprietor and other colonists built 
handsome houses, market places, and wharves, and the town 
soon became one of the most important places in North 
America. Settlers began at once to push back west from 



68 



RIVALS AND NEW COLONIES 




William Penn. From a portrait in 
carved ivory 



the river and founded Germantown and other places. Penn, 
from the first, got along well with the Indians, because he 

always kept his promises to 
them. The "Great Treaty" 
which he made with them lasted 
for many years. 

The Penn family were pro- 
prietors of the colony, just as 
the Baltimores were in Mary- 
land (§ 33), and Penn had the 
right to decide how the people 
should be governed. He freely 
allowed the settlers to draw 
up a kind of constitution for 
themselves called the " Great 
Charter." From this period 
to the Revolution the people 
had the habit of quarreling with 
the governors, who were from 
time to time appointed by the proprietor and who could 
veto the bills passed by the assembly. 

On Delaware Bay south of Philadelphia, the Penns had a 
separate grant of a tract which was long a part of Pennsyl- 
vania, but which was finally set ofT as the separate colony of 
Delaware. 

45. The Carolinas (1663-1689). — Before seizing New York 
the English had begun to extend their southern colonies into 
a region where there were no settlers of other nations, but 
where Spain still claimed to own the territory (§ 18). In 
1663 the king granted a tract, which had once been the 
southern part of Virginia, to eight proprietors, and gave them 
the right to start a colony called Carolina. They tried to 
set up a system of land-holding lords called " landgraves " 
and " caciques," under a kind of constitution which they called 
the " Grand Model." The people did not like this form of 
government and it never worked; instead, the settlers de- 
manded and received popular assemblies like those of the 
other colonies. 



THE CAROLINAS 



69 



36^30^ , 




Carolina occupied a broad and valuable tract running back 
from the seacoast, nominally to the " South Sea," but actu- 
ally only to the mountains. The early settlements were 
nearly all made on the seacoast, especially at several points 
on Albemarle 
Sound and at 
Charleston, which 
was situated on a 
splendid harbor. 
The settlers raised 
tobacco, and down 
near the seacoast 
they planted rice. 
From the great 
pine forests they 
made pitch, tar, 
and turpentine, 
commonly called 
" naval stores " 
because they were 
used with other 

materials for the building of the ships of the time. Later 
the colony was subdivided into North Carolina and South 
Carolina, each of which had about the same boundaries as 
the present states which bear those names. 

The people of Virginia, having lost their charter years be- 
fore (§ 29), could not prevent the planting of Carolina within 
what once had been their territory. Virginia was harassed by 
Indian wars and in 1676 a short rebellion broke out. Some 
of the planters under Nathaniel Bacon rose against the tyran- 
nical governor and burned the public buildings at the little 
capital of Jamestown. When their leader died, " Bacon's 
Rebellion " came to an end. 

46. Troubles in New England (1660-1691). — All the col- 
onies were exposed to Indian wars, and Virginia twice came 
near being swept out of existence. New England's turn came 
in 1675 when King Philip, the sagamore or chief of the Po- 
kanoket tribe, attacked the Massachusetts towns. Twelve 



Carolina, as enlarged by the king in 1665 



70 RIVALS AND NEW COLONIES 

settlements were destroyed by the Indians before King Philip 
was pursued into a swamp and shot. 

In 1685 the new king, James II, formed a plan of binding all 
the New England colonics into one, and sent over Sir Edmund 
Andros to bring it about. The charter of Massachusetts 
had already been taken away (1684), and Sir Edmund Andros 
forced the people of Connecticut and Rhode Island into giv- 
ing up theirs. Before his plan could be carried out, the people 
in England rose against their king, as they had done in 1642. 
When the news arrived (1689) that James II had been driven 
from his throne, Andros was imprisoned in Boston and then 
sent home in disgrace. The result was that Rhode Island and 
Connecticut got back their charters; Massachusetts was allowed 
to take in Plymouth and Maine under a new charter (1691); 
and New Hampshire was reorganized as a separate colony. 

47. Persecution of the Quakers (1660-1689). — The sect 
or church of the Quakers has been mentioned in connection 
with Pennsylvania, where they were numerous and highly 
respected. In England, however, and in some of the other 
colonies they were looked upon with dislike and even horror. 
Their offense was that George Fox, who founded the sect in 
Oomwell's time, and all the Quakers who followed him, thought 
that the usual forms and ceremonies of church services inter- 
fered with the true worship of God. Hence the Quakers had 
no ministers and used no preaching or formal prayers, but held 
that any man or woman might speak in their meetings " as 
the spirit moves you." This was disliked by the Puritans, 
who also objected to women being allowed to speak in a public 
religious gathering. 

In private life the Quakers were the best of people, with 
customs of their own. They used no oaths and would not 
take oaths even as witnesses before a court. They used very 
plain speech, calling each other " Friend " instead of " Mr." 
or " Mrs.," and saying " thee is " and " thee does " instead 
of " you are " and " you do." They wore simple clothes and 
would not adopt new fashions. At first most of the Quakers 
were poor, but they were a thrifty and God-fearing folk, and 
many rich and powerful men joined them. They were wel- 



THE QUAKERS 71 

corned in Rhode Island, and many settled in Maryland, but 
they were especially prosperous in Pennsylvania. 

As a Quaker always made it a point to tell the people of 
other churches that they were proud and formal in their 
worship, the sect brought down upon themselves the wrath 
of several colonies. About 1660 four Quakers were put to 
death in Boston, because they would speak in public contrary 
to the Puritan laws, and sometimes interrupted religious serv- 
ices. One of them was a woman, Mary Dyer. 

This was nothing but the persecution of a harmless sect 
because they disagreed with the religion of the state. To be 
sure, it was at that time the practice of all European nations 
to imprison, whip, or burn men and women who ventured to 
set up a new form of worship contrary to the established 
forms of the official state churches. But such intolerance is 
hardly excusable in the Massachusetts Puritans, who claimed 
for themselves the liberty to try to establish a higher form of 
Christianity. Moreover, they might have seen that no harm 
came to the colonies of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland because Catholics, Quakers, and Baptists were 
allowed to hold their own services. 

48. Progress Toward the West (1607-1689). — In 1689, 
after eighty-two years of colonization, the English were firmly 
settled in North America. Their total population was about 
200,000, more than half of whom lived in the two largest 
colonies, Virginia and Massachusetts. 

As yet few of the settlers were farther than ten or twenty 
miles from tidewater, and little was known of the mountain 
region to the west. In fact, only the three following explora- 
tions seem to have attracted attention: (i) Edward Bland in 
1650 crossed the mountains west of the headwaters of the 
Appomattox, but he did not go beyond the Shenandoah River. 
(2) A little later an Englishman named Batts and a German 
Swiss named Lederer forced their way through the mountain 
forests until they reached the headwaters of the New River, 
which flows into a branch of the Ohio. (3) In 1673 Colonel 
Abraham Wood sent some traders to the far Southwest among 
the Cherokees. 



72 RI\^ALS AND NEW COLONIES 

The Spanish neighbors in Florida, who still claimed the 
coast as far north as the Savannah River, were not more enter- 
prising; but the French had sent traders and missionaries 
through the Great Lakes and to the Mississippi (§ 39). One 
reason why the English were so shut in was that the Iroquois 
Indians would allow neither French nor English to pass 
through their territory. 

49. Summary. — This chapter is devoted to the French, 
Dutch, and Swedish colonies from their beginnings to 1689, 
including the discovery of the West. It includes also the Eng- 
lish colonies founded after 1660. 

During the first half century of English colonization, the 
French were settling alongside the English in Acadia (now 
Nova Scotia) and Canada. They early came into contact 
with the warlike Iroquois, who compelled them to pass around 
them northward in order to reach the Great Lakes. From 
the Lakes the French pushed into the far West. Four 
different explorers, Marquette, Joliet, Hennepin, and La 
Salle, reached the Mississippi River. La Salle followed it 
to its mouth and named the country Louisiana. His dis- 
coveries were the beginning of our present middle-western 
states. 

The Dutch planted a colony on the Hudson River, with 
other settlements on the Connecticut and Delaware. Their 
principal profit came from the fur trade with the Indians, 
especially the Iroquois. The Swedes also planted a colony 
on the Delaware (1638), which was absorbed by the Dutch 

(1655). 

English immigration was stopped about 1640 by the break- 
ing out of civil war in England, which resulted in the execution 
of the king and the setting up of a sort of republican govern- 
ment called the Commonwealth, with Cromwell at its head. 
After Cromwell's death, Charles II became king. The Dutch 
colony of New Netherland was taken by an English fleet 
(1664) and renamed New York. New Amsterdam became 
New York, the first organized city in English North America. 
In addition to New York the following English colonies were 
founded after 1660: 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 



73 



(1) New Jersey (1664), for a time subdivided into two small 
colonies, and inhabited by Quakers, New Englanders, and 
others. 

(2) Pennsylvania (1681), the most successful of all the 
colonies, granted by Charles II to William Penn, the cele- 
brated Quaker. 

(3) Delaware, a little colony, for a long time treated as 
part of Pennsylvania. 

(4) Carolina (1663), a planting region, producing also naval 
stores. This colony was later divided into North Carolina 
and South Carolina. 

New England suffered from Indian wars, and was disturbed 
by a persecution of the Quakers. Meantime, explorers were 
pushing out to the western mountains and a few of them 
reached streams flowing into the Ohio. 




Philadelphia, about 1718, showing the growth of the city in thirty-six years 



REFERENCES 

Maps. Andrews, Col. Self-Government. — Avery, Un. States, II, III. 
— Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 190, 192, 193. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 72-97, 111-115. — Channing, Un. 
States, I. chs. iii, xvi, xvii, II. chs. i-vii. — Eggleston, Our First Century, 
chs. x-xvi. — Hasbrouck, Boys' Parkman, chs. i-vi. — Higginson, Am. 
Explorers, chs. xii, xiii. — Thwaites, France in Am., chs. i-iv. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, no. 16. — Caldwell and Persinger, Source 
Hist., 28-33, 75~97- — Hart, Coyitemporaries, I. §§37-43, 76-81, 112- 
126, 132-136, 150-168; Source Book, §§6, 16, 22-26, 36. — James, 
Readings, §§ 15, 16, 20-22. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 15- 
23; Select Charters, nos. 23-42. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 46, 69, 88, 
91, 94-96, 155, 168, 171, 172. 

Side Lights and Stories. Bennett, Barnaby Lee (N. Y. and Md.). — 
Brooks, In Leister's Times. — Catherwood, Heroes of the Middle 
West. — Cooper, Wept of the Wish-Ton-Wish (King Philip). — Ellis, 



74 RIVALS AND NEW COLONIES 

Last Emperor of the Old Dominion (Bacon's Rebellion). — Gordy, Am. 
Leaders and Heroes, chs. v, viii, ix. • — Kennedy, Rob oj the Bowl (Md.)- 
— Otis, Peter of New Amsterdam; Stephen of Philadelphia. — Simms, 
Cassique of Kiawah (Carolina). — Smith, Young Puritan Series (King 
Philip's War). — Stockton, Stories of New Jersey, 24-31, 51-68. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, II. — Wilson, Am. People, I. — Winsor, 
America, III. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 38) I. What led the French to colonize in the New World? 2 (For 
an essay). Chaniplain's travels and adventures. 3 (For an essay). The 
Iroquois. 4. How was New France settled? 

(§ 39) 5 (Foi" 'in essay). Adventures of La Salle. 6. What Euro- 
peans discovered the Mississippi River? 7. How was Louisiana founded? 
8. Early canoe voyages on the Mississippi River. 

(§ 40) 9. How did the country of Holland arise? 10. Why did the 
Dutch settle on the Hudson River? 11 (For an essay). Early accounts 
and pictures of New Amsterdam. 12. How was New Sweden founded? 
13. What sort of government did the Dutch have in New Netherland? 

(§ 41) 14. Who were the Royalists and the Roundheads? 15. How 
was a republic set up in England? 16 (For an essay). An account of 
Oliver Cromwell. 17. How did the Restoration aflect the American col- 
onies? 

(§ 42) 18. How did New Amsterdam become New York? 19. Why 
did the Dutch and English quarrel? 

(§ 43) 20. How were the New Jersey colonies founded? 21. How did 
New York become a city? 22. What kind of people came to New York 
and New Jersey? 

(§ 44) 23 (For an essay). Life and experiences of William Penn. 
24. How was Pennsylvania founded? 25. How was Philadelphia founded? 
26. What was the "Great Charter"? 27. How was Delaware founded? 

(§ 45) 28. How were the Carolinas founded? 29. What was the 
"Grand Model"? 30. How did the Carolina people make a living? 
31 (For an essay). Bacon's Rebellion. 

(§ 46) 32 (For an essay). Incidents of King Philip's War. 33. Why 
was Andros so unpopular? 

(§ 47) 34- Who were the Quakers? 35. Why were they so much dis- 
liked? 36. Why were the New Englanders so intolerant of Quakers? 
37 (For an essay). Witchcraft trials. 

(§ 48) 38. What English expeditions crossed the mountains westward? 
39. What neighbors had the English on the north and the south? 



CHAPTER V 
COLONIAL LIFE (1689-1750) 



60. The Settlers. — As we have seen in the previous 
chapters, it was almost two centuries after the discovery by 
Columbus before the eastern coast of North America was 
taken up by English colonies. During the process the Eng- 
lish settlers went through many hard fights with the Spaniards, 
with the French, with the Dutch, with wild beasts, and with 
wild men and pirates, before they felt safe. 

After 1689 these colonies grew so fast that in 1750 they 
contained about 1,200,000 inhabitants. Land was plentiful 
and cheap ; and there were work 
and food for all the members of 
the large families. Few immi- 
grants from Europe came to 
New England after 1640 (§41), 
but thousands flocked into the 
other colonies. 

The largest element among 
these newcomers was always 
the English, including the 
Scotch and the Welsh. A few 
French Protestants, commonly 
called Huguenots, and some 
Catholic Scotch Highlanders 
sought the southern colonies. 
Great numbers of Scotch-Irish 
went to Pennsylvania, and soon 
made up a fourth of the population. By natural preference 
they sought the frontiers; some drifted later along the valleys 
southward into the mountains of Virginia and the Carolinas, 
where many of their descendants still live. 




The landing of Huguenots at New 
Rochelle, N. Y. 



hart's sch. hist. — s 



75 



76 COLONIAL LIFE 

The only considerable number of immigrants who did not 
speak English when they arrived were the Germans. Many 
German-speaking Protestants, whose worship was restricted 
at home, took refuge in Pennsylvania, and a few in New York. 
Among them were Mennonites from central Germany, and 
Moravians from Austria. Many Germans went to the Vir- 
ginia mountains. 

Besides these willing immigrants, the colonies received 
thousands of negro slaves from the West Indies or direct from 
Africa. All the colonies shared in this s\'stem of forced labor, 
but the negroes were so well suited for the work in the 
southern tobacco fields that about nine tenths of them were 
taken to the South. 

51. The Indians. — The different colonizing races followed 
different methods in dealing with the Indians. The Spaniards 
were cruel to them but often married Indian women; and they 
planted missions among the wild tribes, with splendid stone 
churches and convents, around which the Indians lived almost 
like slaves. The French knew how to attach the Indians to 
themselves. Many young Frenchmen, the so-called " cou- 
reurs de bois," ("wood-rangers") put on paint and feathers 
and lived among them; many others married squaws and 
raised families of " half-breeds," as the children were called. 

The English never made the Indians their fellow citizens 
or intimate friends, but kind-hearted colonists tried to Chris- 
tianize them by planting missions among them. On the other 
hand the English ahvays admitted that the Indians preserved 
a " right of occupancy " in their lands. Whether they lived 
within the grants to a chartered company, or in proprietors' 
colonies, or in " royal provinces," the Indians could not be de- 
prived of their hunting grounds except by their own consent, 
usually set forth in a solemn written treaty. 

A few Indians accepted the white man's religion; but most 
of them were wild tribes, living beyond the frontier, and no 
better off because of the coming of their white neighbors. 
Indeed, the settlers brought to the Indians such dread diseases 
as smallpox, which swept off thousands. The Indians taught 
their white neighbors several useful things, such as how to 



INDIANS 77 

make small shells into wampum, which was used by the 
Indians as a kind of money; how to grow Indian corn; how 
to boil down maple sugar; how to combine corn and beans 
into a dish called succotash; how to build canoes out of solid 
trees or birch bark; how to find their way in the woods. 

From the whites the Indians bought such goods as iron 
kettles, hatchets, beads, and ornaments; " matchcoats " 
(that is, blankets) ; guns, powder, and shot, sometimes used 
to kill the men who sold them. They prized especially the 
" fire water," as they called the alcoholic liquid which would 
burn if poured on a fire, and which changed the Indian who 
drank it into a fool or a demon. 

52. Indian Warfare. — Another thing that the white man 
learned was to be forever on the watch for the savages. The 
Indians looked upon every man, woman, and child who be- 
longed to a hostile tribe as a personal enemy; therefore, if an 
Indian were injured by a white colonist, his friends felt them- 
selves entitled to kill at sight any inhabitant of that colony. 
Their warfare was fierce and terrible. Indians would not 
spend days in besieging a fort; their method was to burst 
into a house or village, shooting right and left, and taking as 
captives the people still living. Then they would hurry home 
again with their party, tomahawking on the way the unhappy 
captives who could not keep up. They scalped dead enemies 
and sometimes live ones, and saved some of the prisoners for 
awful scenes of torture. 

The colonists, whether English, Spanish, French, or Dutch, 
had little right to complain of such barbarity, for they often 
surprised Indian villages and killed Indian women and chil- 
dren in cold blood, and sometimes offered rewards for the 
scalps of Indians. It was an age of blood and cruelty. 

53. Home Life. — Since most of the colonists lived on 
separate farms or in small villages, the larger part of the lives 
of young people was spent on their own places. It was easy 
to make a home, for the early settlements were in the woods, 
and two or three men working for a week could build a log 
house. When the cracks between the logs were properly 
filled with moss and clay, such a house would be comfortable 



COLONIAL LIFE 



for years. Some of the colonists were carpenters who built 
good frame houses, a few of which are still standing. Some of 
the Dutch and German farmhouses in the middle colonies 
were built of brick. In the mild climate of the South most of 
the early houses were simple log or frame structures, except 
that a few well-to-do families built handsome mansions; for 
example, the Byrd house near Richmond, Virginia. 

Inside ordinary houses the prin- 
cipal feature was the great chimney, 
with a fireplace, sometimes made 
large enough to take six-foot logs. 
There the cooking for the family 
was done, and at night there was 
often no other light than that of 
the burning logs. The big room 
upon which the fireplace opened 
was kitchen and living room and 
best parlor and bedroom all in one, 
and contained the simplest furni- 
ture. The colonists made " punch- 
eons " by splitting trunks of trees 
in two; and they made seats and 
tables by setting these puncheons 
flat side up and fitting them with 
legs. An iron pot was the principal 
cooking utensil. Well-to-do people 
brought beautiful pieces of furni- 
ture from England or had them 
made in the neighborhood. A few 
rich merchants, like William Walton of New York and Robert 
Morris of Philadelphia, owned mansions stocked with beauti- 
ful china, silverware, pictures, and Turkey carpets. 

Rich and poor alike were very subject to illness. Little 
children died off in great numbers, and their elders also suf- 
fered from many diseases, especially from the dangerous " jail 
fever," or " ship fever," which we call typhus; from rheuma- 
tism and consumption; from malaria in many forms, includ- 
ing the dreaded " breakbone fever." Doctors were few and 




Dress of Nabby Bishop of Medford 
Worn by a descendant 



HOME AND SOCIAL LIFE 



79 



gave strong and nauseous drugs, including pounded toads 
and liquid mercury. Smallpox was one of the worst scourges, 
and its ravages were not much lessened by the treatment 
called " inoculation," which consisted in deliberately taking 
smallpox in such a way as to make it a light case. 

54. Social Life. — In colonial times, as now, people liked 
to get together and have a good time; but there were prac- 
tically no theaters, no excursions, and little music except 
that in the churches and the unskilled scraping of a few 
fiddlers. 

In New England 
the principal recre- 
ation was going to 
church, for that 
was the one place 
where all the 
people, men, 
women, and chil- 
dren, came together 
and had a little 
opportunity to 
gossip after the 
sermon. The Puri- 
tans frowned on 
cards and dancing; 

nevertheless their children had plenty of fun and jollity. 
Young people romped and dressed in queer costumes, and 
slipped out of bed to eat pie and oysters at midnight. 
Southerners would ride many miles on horseback or in 
coaches to visit friends and dine and play games and dance. 
Lucinda Lee, a lively Virginia maid, relates how she made 
one of her friends " play on the forti-pianer," by which she 
meant the piano. In the middle colonies the Quakers and 
many of the Dutch and German sects were strict, but other 
people enjoyed parties and suppers, and plenty of amuse- 
ments. Cooper, the novelist, describes a feast where each 
guest had at his elbow a whole circle of pie made up of six 
pieces cut from as many different kinds of pie. 




Harpsichord (early form of the piano) and Washington's 
flute, now in Mt. Vernon 



8o 



COLONIAL LIFE 



EveryAvhere young people got together on the farms, for 
quilting bees or corn-husking parties, or weddings. Funerals 
were held in state, throngs of friends sometimes walking miles 
to the graveyard, or " burying ground," as it was called. 
Horse racing was a favorite amusement in the South, and 
there was hard drinking and gambling in every colony. Lot- 
teries were a favorite kind of gambling, and they were allowed 

for all sorts of purposes, 
including the raising 
of funds for a college 
building or a parson- 
age. 

55. Colonial Church- 
es. — The church sltn'- 
ices were the only 
schools for thousands 
of poor and ignorant 
families. The Church 
of England, now com- 
monly called the Epis- 
copal Church, spread 
even to New England. 
It was " established 
in Maryland, Virginia, 
the Carolinas, and part 
of New York; that is, 
the c h u r c h e s w ere 
built and maintained 
and the ministers were 
paid out of general 
taxation. The Episco- 
palians were fond of 
building churches, and a good example of their art is the 
church at Goose Creek, South Carolina — one of their oldest 
buildings — which is still in use. 

The Independent, or (as it came to call itself) the Congre- 
gational Church, was strong in New England and also in east- 
ern Long Island, in New Jersey, and in parts of North Carolina. 




(c) Detroit Pub. Co. 
Old North Church, Boston, built in 1723. Paul 
Revere's alarm lights were hung in the tower of 
this church on the night of his famous ride. The 
high square-back pews and the slaves' gallery, 
above the organ at the right, are interesting fea- 
tures of this church 



COLONIAL CHURCHES 8i 

Each congregation chose its own minister and looked after 
itself. In New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts 
the Congregational Church was established and everybody 
had to pay taxes for its support. 

{ The leading church in the middle colonies was the Presby- 
terian, in which assemblies of ministers and laymen decided 
on the church doctrines and policy. The Dutch Reformed 
Church of New York was much like it. 

The Baptist Church appeared first in Rhode Island, then in 
the middle colonies, and later in the South, especially on the 
frontier. The Baptists, like the Congregationalists, left each 
local church free to make its own decisions and to appoint its 
own minister. 

The Methodist Church, commonly called the Wesleyan 
Church in England, was founded about 1740 by John and 
Charles Wesley, clergymen of the Church of England. They 
were distressed by what they considered the deadness of that 
church, and started a movement of reform. Since it was not 
accepted by the church, they set up a new organization. 
Both the brothers visited America, and John Wesley stayed 
for some time in Georgia (§ 65). Their church, like that of the 
Baptists, was especially fitted for work on the frontier, and 
these two religious bodies had a great influence in the West. 

The Quakers, like the Congregationalists, had no central 
authority, but formed state " meetings," in which they ex- 
changed views. They were strong in Rhode Island, Penn- 
sylvania, and New Jersey. 

The Germans founded several Protestant churches, among 
them the Lutheran, the Dunkard, and the Mennonite, a Ger- 
man sect much resembling the Quakers in prim dress and 
horror of outward show. The German Moravians built great 
community houses in Bethlehem and Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 
and elsewhere. 

The Catholic Church in this period included the descendants 
of the Maryland Catholics, and a few Frenchmen, Spaniards, 
and Irishmen in other colonies. 

56. Colonial Ministers. — Most of the colonists enjoyed 
church services, discussions about religious doctrines, and 



82 



COLONIAL LIFE 




long sermons. A young minister, who forgot to turn 
the hourglass before he began, once preached two hours, 
and the congregation seemed to " like it well." The 
New England ministers were leaders in the life of their 
colonies. 

One of the greatest among them was Cotton Mather of 
Boston, who is a fair example of the Puritans at their best. 
When he entered college at twelve years of age he had read 
Caesar, Ovid, Vergil, and many other 
authors ; he could speak Latin, had read 
much Greek, and had begun Hebrew. 
When nineteen years old, he preached 
his first sermon. He soon after became 
the minister of one of the principal Boston 
churches, and remained there through- 
out his life. He was married three times 
and had fifteen children, of whom only 
two outlived him. 

Besides preaching thousands of ser- 
mons, Mather read in his library of three 
thousand volumes, and wrote many books, 
including the Magnalia. This is a kind of history, but is full 
of poems, stories, and all sorts of material. Mather was also 
one of the few scientific men of his time, and was the friend 
and correspondent of many learned men in England and in 
Germany. He was a man of public spirit, and interested in 
schools. Therefore he wrote to Elihu Yale, a wealthy mer- 
chant in London, suggesting that he give money to a little 
college that had been started in Connecticut. Yale did so, 
and the college was named for him. 

In the middle colonies, especially along the frontier, many 
uneducated men became ministers. In the South there was 
difficulty in getting good ministers, though an English so- 
ciety, usually called the " Venerable Society," sent over min- 
isters and libraries, and tried to raise the standard. As 
lawyers at this time were few and much disliked, and as the 
doctors had little education, the ministers were in many places 
the only trained men. 



A two-hour pulpit glass. 
From the Salem Museum 




Guests arriviiig at a Southern mansion in Colonial days 



84 COLONIAL LIFE 

57. Witchcraft. — During the period of colonization the 
world was full of a belief in unseen evil spirits. Many of the 
immigrants though'' the Indians were devils, and the belief 
was widespread that ghosts sometimes appeared and talked 
with living persons. People held the harmful belief that 
human beings who so desired could become acquainted with 
evil spirits, and with their aid could harm other persons, whom 
perhaps they had never seen. Such beings were called witches. 

Throughout Christian Europe at this time men and women 
were arrested on the charge of witchcraft; and hundreds of 
thousands of supposed witches, most of them women, were 
fearfully tortured and executed by burning, in order to make 
them confess to crimes that nobody could possibly commit. 
Some of the few brave men who had the courage to teach 
that there could be no such things as witches were themselves 
executed as witches. This awful delusion prevailed in Eng- 
land and extended to the English colonies, so that a supposed 
witch was once executed in Maryland. 

In 1692 the insane belief in witchcraft took strong hold of 
Massachusetts. Some children in Salem invented a set of 
stories that an Indian slave and other women were witches; 
and witnesses would fall down in the court, shrieking and de- 
claring that prisoners there present were pricking them, with 
pins. The so-called witches were accused of making compacts 
with the devil, who in turn gave them power to injure others. 
In vain did they cry, " I am innocent "; nineteen were hanged 
at Salem. This fate was merciful in comparison with the 
tortures usual in such cases in Europe. 

After a few months the people of Massachusetts slowly came 
to their senses and were almost the first people in Christendom 
to acknowledge that there could be no such thing as witches. 
Gradually the same ideas crept into the minds of Europeans; 
and belief in witchcraft is nowadays left to savages and bar- 
barous people. 

58. Colonial Children. — Many immigrants in America 
hoped to improve the chances of their children. In the time 
of Raleigh's unsuccessful colony (§21) the settlers noted the 
birth of a little girl, and because this child was the first Chris- 



COLONIAL CHILDREN 



85 



tian born In Virginia, she was named Virginia Dare. In the 
ship Mayflower were httle children, one of whom was named 
Peregrine (that is, Pilgrim) White. One of the colonial 
founders thought that " children of twelve or fourteen years 
of age, or under, may be kept from Idleness In making a thou- 
sand kinds of trifling things which will be good merchandise 
for that country." 

The Dutch in New Amsterdam brought over children from 
the poorhouses of Holland and " bound them out"; that is, 
assigned them to families that agreed to take care of them for 
a term of years and meanwhile had the benefit of their work. 
The Puritans were commonly thought to be severe with their 
children, but many of them showed great love and tenderness. 
Cotton Mather said that he tried 
" to form in his children a temper 
of benignity." He would set them 
to doing services and kindnesses 
for one another and for other chil- 
dren, and he would let them see that 
he was not satisfied " excepting 
they had a sweetness of temper 
shining in them." 

Children could be naughty in 
those days; and the grown-ups did 
not always show much wisdom in 
correcting them. The great 
preacher Whitefield tells us that on 
board ship he found a little boy 
under five years of age who would 
not say his prayers; so he plumped 
the child down on his knees, gave 
him several whacks, and then the 
little boy said his prayers nicely, 
gave the lad some figs for a reward. 

Most children had a happy outdoor life, wore simple cloth- 
ing, and were accustomed to pay deep respect to their fathers 
and mothers. Well-bred little girls curtsied to older people. 
Sometimes the children had to join in defending their homes 




Dress of a colonial boy, about 1750. 
Children were dressed much like 
their elders 

Whereupon the minister 



86 



COLONIAL LIFE 



from Indians and other enemies. John Fontaine, a Virginian, 
tells us how with four servants and five of his young sons he 
for hours fought off the crew of a French privateer. 

Well-to-do families fitted out their children in handsome 
style. Thus John Livingston of New York, when he was sent 

on a journey, was furnished 
with " eleven new shirts, 
four pairs of lace sleeves, 
eight plain cravats, four cra- 
vats with lace, four striped 
waistcoats with black but- 
tons, two hats, six pairs of 
breeches, silk and thread 
to mend his clothes." 

59. Colonial Schools. — 
Many of the colonists had 
been taught in English, 
Dutch, or German schools, 
and some were graduates 
of English universities. 
Therefore early steps were 
taken to give the boys 
simple schooling. Virginia 
was the first colony to try 
to set up a free school, but 
in colonial times fees were 
paid, even in the so-called 
" public schools," for those 
pupils whose parents could 
afford it. 

Nowhere outside of New England was money regularly 
raised by taxation to educate the children. In 1647 the Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts required that every town of fifty 
families should keep up a school, and every town of a hundred 
families should keep up a " grammar school " ; that is, a school 
where Latin was taught. Not every town obeyed the law, 
and not every boy went to school; and there was no require- 
ment that girls be taught. 




An early form of primer. This was called a 
" hornbook " because a thin sheet of horn 
over the paper served to protect the printing 



COLONIAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 



87 



Both private and public schools were housed in rough little 
buildings poorly heated and lighted. Schoolmasters were 
often cruel, for it was then the custom throughout the world 
to make children learn by beating them. Textbooks were 
crude and badly printed, and the children learned little but 
what was later called "the three R's," "Reading, 'Kiting, 
and 'Rithmetic." 

Little girls could go to the so-called " dame schools," paying 
small fees, and older girls could go to the few ill-kept boarding 
schools. Yet somehow the liveliest people of the times were 
these same colonial girls, who were taught by their fathers and 
mothers, and elder brothers and sisters. A daughter of Cotton 
Mather learned 
Hebrew. Anne 
Bradstreet of Mas- 
sachusetts com- 
posed poems. 
Eliza Lucas of 
South Carolina 
wrote a clever ac- 
count of home life 
during the Revo- 
lution. Hannah 
Adams published 
one of the first 
school histories of 
the United States. 
Bright girls would 
learn with or with- 
out a good chance. 

60. Colonial Col- 
leges. — Between 
1636 and 1 70 1 three 
little colleges were 
founded, Harvard 

in Massachusetts, William and Mary in Virginia, and Yale 
in Connecticut. In the next seventy years seven more were 
set up, including Kings (now Columbia) in the city of New 




unto hi'm r and they brought him forth, 
and set him witliout the city. 



A...I »l..l.. I.I- I 



liiid liolil upon his Imnd, oml iiprin Ihe linnd 
<l .i|irin the hnii.l nf'l.ia Iwo dan^kUrs, thf Lfrd hriiij rncrcilill 
i lli.y l.iou^UI hi.n f..rlli, iin.l <i.-l hi 



Facsimile of a page from a Bible printed especially for 
children 



88 COLONIAL LIFE 

York, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and 
Princeton in New Jersey. These colleges all took boys at 
thirteen to sixteen years of age, and gave them a four years' 
course of study that was not so good as that of a modern 
high school. Most of them were founded in order to educate 
ministers, and the boys all had to study Latin, Greek, and, 
in some places, Hebrew. 

According to their own account many of the students 
were idle and mischievous. One of them writes, " Do not 
despise old times too much, for remember that 2 or 3 cen- 
turies from the time of seeing this, you will be counted as 
old times' folks as much as you count us to be so now . . . 
and very likely you are more given to vice than we are." 
President Stiles of Yale wrote in his diary, " An hundred and 
fifty or 180 Young Gentlemen Students is a bundle of Wild 
Fire not easily controlled & governed — and at best the Dia- 
dem of a President is a Crown of Thorns." 

The president and tutors watched over and held court on 
such riotous fellows as three students who were once ex- 
pelled " for their disorder and injurious carriage in killing 
and having stolen ropes, in hanging goodman Sells' dog upon 
the sign-post in the night." Yet there must have been plenty 
of good in colonial colleges, to judge by their students. 
Thomas Jefferson was a graduate of William and Mary, James 
Madison of Princeton, Nathan Hale of Yale, and John Adams 
of Harvard. George Washington was a self-educated man, 
but in his later life was chancellor — that is, president — of 
William and Mary College. 

61. Colonial Reading Matter. — In all tiie colonies print- 
ing presses were set up, and sexeral newspapers were founded. 
Benjamin Franklin was the best-known printer and editor. 
The commonest book was the Bible, in which thousands of 
children learned their letters from the big capitals at the 
heads of the chapters. There were no Sunday schools in 
those days, but most children went to church. Religious 
homes held daily family worship with reading of Scripture 
and prayer; sometimes the children " read around," each a 
verse in succession. 



COLONIAL READING MATTER 



89 



The book best known after the Bible was the New England 
Primer, first issued about 1690. The Httle volume contains a 
few lists of words, spelling lessons, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten 
Commandments, an account of Mr. John Rogers, a Protestant 
who had been burned 
at the stake in Eng- 
land, and the Shorter 
Catechism, which is a 
statement of Puritan 
doctrine. The quaint- 
est thing in the book is 
the alphabet illustrated 
with poor woodcuts. 

62. Summary. — 
This chapter is an ac- 
count of the people in 
the colonies, both the 
immigrants and the 
Indians, and of the so- 
cial life of the English 
colonists, including the 
children. 

The English colonies 
grew rapidly, though 
they had to fight their 
way against the In- 
dians and against other European races. Besides the English, 
numbers of Germans and Scotch-Irish came to the middle 
and southern colonies, and many negroes were imported from 
Africa. The Indians were not included in the English civil- 
ized communities, but they traded freely with the whites, and 
often made savage war upon them. 

Most of the colonists lived at first in log houses. Rich 
and poor suffered much from disease. In all sections there was 
lively social life with parties and visits, and outside New Eng- 
land there were horse racing and other amusements. The 
colonists were great churchgoers and organized churches in a 
great number of denominations, especially the Episcopalian, 




Young T I M O T H V 
Learnt fin to fly. 



V A s T H I for Pride, 
Was fet afide. 



Whales in the Sea, 
GOD's Voice obey. 



X E a X E s did die. 
And fo muft 1. 



While youth do chear 
Death may be near. 

Z A c c A E ij s be 
Did climb the Tree 
Our Lord lo fee. 



A page of the alphabet from the New England Primer 



90 COLONIAL LIFE 

Congregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, 
Catholic, and German Protestant. The ministers, especially 
the Puritans, were strong men and leaders in their commu- 
nities. Religion did not prevent the colonists from being over- 
come by the dreadful delusion that there were witches; but 
the colonies were the first part of the Christian world to throw 
off the horrid belief. 

Colonial children were numerous and, on the whole, happy. 
Their schools were few and poor, and were intended only for 
boys, though many girls learned to read. Little colleges grew 
up in which boys received further education, and in which the 
ministers of the older churches were trained. The girls in 
many families somehow became educated. Colonial literature 
was not important, except the religious books and the New 
England Primer; but the colleges and the educated families 
trained the great writers and speakers of the Revolution that 
was to come. 

REFERENCES 

Histories. Andrews, Col. Period, ch. iii. — Becker, Beginnings, ch. v. 

— Channing, Un. States, \. ch. xix, H. chs. viii, xiv-xvi. — Eggleston, 
Our First Century, chs. xx, xxi, xxiii, xxiv; Life in i8th Century, chs. i- 
xxi passim. — Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Cols., IL 258-293, 317-356. — 
Jenks, When Am. won Liberty, chs. vi-viii. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. 
People, chs. iii-v. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 107-122. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, I. §§ 82-89, 137-149, 169-172, IL §§ 16-18, 80-81, 90- 
loi; Source Book, §§ 11-52 passim; Source Readers, I. §§ 19-44, 66-83, 
IL §§ l-ll. — James, Readings, §§ 17-19, 25, 26. — Old South Leaflets, 
nos. 21, 22, 93, 143, 159, 161, 177, 184, 185. 

Side Lights and Stories. Barr, Black Shilling (Witchcraft). — Earle, 
Child Life in Col. Days; Col. Dames and Good-wives; Home Life in Col. 
Days; Sabbath in Purttati New Engl.; Two Centuries of Costume. — 
Franklin, Autobiography. — Johnston, Audrey (Va.). — Lane and Hill, 
Am. Hist, in Literature, chs. iii-vi. — Lodge, Short Hist, of Engl. Cols. 

— Meyers, Young Patroon. — Paulding, Dutchman' s Fireside. — Price, 
Lads and Lassies of Other Days, I1-19, 39-84. — Robinson, Little Puri- 
tan's First Christmas. — Stockton, Stories of New Jersey, 69-92. — Wen- 
dell, Cotton Mather. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, III, V. ch. i. — Earle's books (cited 
above). — Mentor, serial nos. 62, 77, 99. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. 
People. — Wilson, Am. People, I, IL 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 9I 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 50) I. Did the English colonists have an easy time? 2. What 
attracted immigrants from Europe? 3. What European races were rep- 
resented in the English colonies? 4. Why were negro slaves brought 
into the colonies? 

(§ 51) 5. How were the Indians treated by the Spaniards, the French, 
and the English? 6. What rights did the English admit for the Indians? 
7. What did the whites learn from the Indians? 8. What did the In- 
dians learn from the whites? 

(§ 52) 9- Why did Indian wars break out? 10. How did the whites 
make war on Indians? 11 (For an essay). An Indian raid. 

(§ 53) 12. In what sort of houses did the colonists live? 13. What 
sort of furniture and utensils did the colonists have? 14. What were 
the most common diseases among the colonists? 

(§54) 15- What did the colonists do for amusement? 16 (Foran essay). 
A colonial party. 

(§ 55) 1 7- What were the principal churches in the English colonies? 
18. What was the work of the Methodists in America? 

(§ 56) 19. What sort of ministers were found in the colonies? 20 
(For an essay). Education and private life of Cotton Mather. 21. 
Ministers in the South. 

(§ 57) 22. What was the belief in witchcraft? 23 (For an essay). 
Incidents of the Salem witchcraft trials. 

(§ 58) 24. Who were the first children born in the colonies of Virginia 
and Plymouth? 25 (For an essay). Child life in the colonies. 26. How 
were the children of wealthy families dressed? 

(§ 59) '^l- What were public schools in the colonies? 28. Were there 
any free public schools in the colonies? 29. How were children taught 
in the colonies? 30. How were girls educated? 31 (For an essay). A 
day in a colonial school. 

(§ 60) 32. What were the colonial colleges? 33 (For an essay). Ac- 
count of college life in the colonies. 

(§ 61) 34. What did the colonists read? 35. What was the New 
England Primer? 

^ooiMm^ amjmiilu mddlo imMK/r^cd/ Kj^tcmi — , 

Model lesson in a writing book of 1753, The Compleat Penman. 



CHAPTER VI 

WAR AND THE WEST (1689-1763) 

63. Why was there War? — The period beginning about 
1689 is a turning point in English and American history, for 
the mother country entered on a new kind of government: 
(i) The EngHsh people through their Parliament took con- 
trol and selected William and Mary as their king and queen. 
(2) England and Scotland had been sister kingdoms under 
the same king; in 1707 they were united into the single king- 
dom of Great Britain with one Parliament. Ireland remained 
till 1800 a separate kingdom under the same king as Great 
Britain, but with its own Parliament. 

France was looked upon as the natural enemy of England, 
and between 1689 and 1763 the two countries fought each 
other in four European wars. During that time England 
became the strongest naval power in the world. The French 
were trying to enlarge their colonies in America and India, 
and also to absorb Spain and the Spanish possessions; and 
therefore all the American colonies were drawn into these wars. 

64. Colonists and Mother Country. — The English colonists 
looked upon themselves as Englishmen, bound to defend their 
country. They also claimed all the rights of Englishmen as 
set forth in the Magna Charta (§ 7), such as trial by jury, vot- 
ing on their own taxes, and freedom from cruel punishments. 
They were very loyal to the royal family and looked upon 
whoever might be king or queen of England as a sort of saint. 
Therefore, whenever a war broke out in Europe, the English 
colonists helped to fit out fleets against their French and 
Spanish neighbors. They also captured the merchant ships 
of their enemies with privateers; that is, armed private ships 
furnished with " letters of marque " from the government, 
authorizing them to make such captures. 

92 



GEORGIA AND LOUISIANA 93 

King William set up in England a new board called the 
" Board of Trade " to look after the colonies. The board ex- 
amined the laws passed by the colonial assemblies and if it saw 
fit caused them to be vetoed in England. This plan was weak, 
and for many years little thought was given to the colonies 
by the home government; hence they had the chance to grow 
up in their own way. 

65. Colony of Georgia (1732-1750). — Between South 
Carolina and Spanish Florida there was a vacant tract of 
land. In 1732 the new colony of Georgia (named for King 
George II) was founded there by James Oglethorpe, a wealthy 
and public-spirited Englishman, who wanted to give more 
opportunity to those of his countrymen who were in debt or 
could not make a living in England. For the first time in the 
history of the colonies, the settlers were forbidden to buy rum 
or to hold slaves. As all immigrants were allowed to practice 
their own religion, some Jews, Swiss, Protestant Scotchmen, 
and Germans were attracted there. 

The charter granted the land from the Savannah River south 
to the Altamaha River (map, page 69), which was only about 
a hundred miles from the Spanish town of St. Augustine (§ 18). 
This meant that the English might have to fight for their 
colony. The land was good and settlers poured in; and after 
a few years the laws against liquor and slave holding were 
given up. 

66. French Colony of Louisiana (1699-1740). — While 
Frenchmen and Englishmen were fighting each other in Europe 
and India and America, a new source of conflict arose in the 
interior of North America. France in 1699 began to occupy 
the magnificent valley which La Salle had explored (§ 39), by 
sending a French colonizing expedition under Iberville. He 
landed first at Dauphin Island south of the bay of Mobile, 
then on the mainland at Biloxi, then at old Mobile near the 
present city of Mobile. Part of the expedition entered the 
Mississippi River, where they found an English ship which 
seemed disposed to dispute their rights. They sent it to the 
right-about, and the bend of the river where this incident hap- 
pened is still called " English Turn." 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 95 

This little colony took the name of Louisiana. Like the 
early English settlers, the French settled on marshy land, and 
many of the people died from poor food or malaria. In 17 12 
a banker named Crozat got from the king of France the sole 
right to trade in Louisiana, which was then declared to include 
all the territory from Mexico to Carolina and the whole valley 
of the Mississippi and its branches; but in 171 7 he surren- 
dered his grant. In the following year (171 8) the French 
built a little town on a slight elevation on the eastern bank 
of the great river, and called it New Orleans; the place soon 
became the capital and center of the colony. 

Other little settlements, such as Natchez, were made on the 
Mississippi River and the streams flowing into it, but the 
colony grew very slowly. The French reached the Mississippi 
country also from Canada. Along the route they founded 
Detroit (1701) and the towns of Vincennes, Cahokia, and Kas- 
kaskia, near the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. They also tried 
to hold the friendship of the Indians by planting trading posts 
far north of Mobile. 

67. Three Intercolonial Wars (1689-1748). — During 
" King William's War " (1689-1697) the French and their 
Indian allies made a series of terrible raids upon the English 
frontier. Hundreds of prisoners were carried back to the 
Indian villages or to Canada. On their side, the English 
colonists raided the French colony of Acadia and for a time 
held Port Royal on the Bay of Fundy (§ 38). 

In 1699 great ofTense was given to Spain by the attempt of 
a Scotch company under Patterson to take possession of the 
Isthmus of Panama, which was called " this door of the sea, 
this key of the universe." Twelve hundred Scotchmen 
reached the Isthmus, but the English government would not 
back up the plan and thus lost the opportunity to plant a 
colony at this important point. 

" Queen Anne's War " began in Europe in 1701 and at once 
spread to America. One of its famous incidents was the Indian 
raid on the frontier town of Deerfield in the Connecticut Val- 
ley (1704). The people did not expect an enemy in the midst 
of winter snows, and their strong stockade was taken by sur- 

hart's sch. hist. — 6 



96 



WAR AND THE WEST 



prise. The door of Parson Williams's house is still preserved 
as it was left by the Indians, after they had hacked a hole 
through so that they might fire into the house. The Caro- 
linas were also attacked by Spaniards and were in great 
danger. 

The French were beaten in Europe and were obliged to make 
peace (17 13). This was the first step in the destruction of 

their empire in America; for 
they yielded to England their 
claims to Hudson Bay and to 
Newfoundland, and they gave 
up Acadia, which the English 
renamed Nova Scotia. 

During " King George's 
War " ( 1 739-1 748) England 
and Spain again came to 
blows because English ships 
would not stop trading with 
Spanish colonies. The French 
joined the war and received 
a terrible blow; for a fleet of 
English vessels carrying New 
England men captured their 
strong fortification of Louis- 
burg on the island of Cape 
Breton (1745). Peace was 
made in 1748 and Louisburg 
was returned; but England and France were still at odds over 
the ownership of the West. 

68. The English West (1700-1748). — Except in the ex- 
treme North and South, the English colonies were shut off 
from the French by the rugged ranges of the Appalachian 
Mountains. To the early English colonists " the West " 
meant only the strip a few miles back from the coast. Then 
they settled a frontier belt in such regions as the Berkshire Hills 
in New England, and the " Piedmont " hill country of Virginia. 
By 1740 several currents of settlers were moving into the 
interior. Dutch, German, and English farmers, in spite of 




Door of Parson Williams-'s house, showing 
marks of the tomahawk. Preserved in 
the Deerfield Museum 



RIVALRY IN THE WEST 97 

the dangers from the Indians, took up the rich land in the 
Mohawk Valley. Germans moved west in Pennsylvania, and 
settled York, Lancaster, and other towns (map, page 105). 
Scotch-Irish and Germans made their way into the valley of 
the Shenandoah, commonly called " the valley of Virginia." 
There, more than a hundred years later, was born, out of the 
Scotch-Irish stock, Woodrow Wilson, who became President 
of the United States in 1913. Other Scotch-Irish settlers took 
up land in the broken country of the western Carolinas, where 
President Andrew Jackson was born. 

The colonial governors helped along the western movement, 
for they wanted to dispose of the lands belonging to the colo- 
nies, and to plant settlements to keep the Indians in check. The 
Iroquois — now " Six Nations " — still lay like a wall across the 
frontiers of New York; therefore one of the principal men in 
the countryside, Sir William Johnson of Johnson Hall, in 
central New York, made it the labor of his life to gain their 
good will, and he kept them in good temper for many years. 

The country farther west, beyond the Appalachians, was as 
hard to reach as Alaska is now. The only Englishmen who 
then traveled through those immense forests were the traders, 
who led their pack horses from Virginia, the Carolinas, and 
Georgia to the villages of the Cherokees and Creeks of the 
Southwest, and to the Shawnees and Miamis of the Northwest. 

69. Rivalry on the Ohio (i 748-1 754). — The time was 
approaching when the English would begin to push for posses- 
sion of the interior. In 1749 a French officer named Celoron 
de Bienville was ordered to go down the Ohio River, and at 
various places to bury lead plates inscribed with the arms of 
France, as a proof that this was French territory. In defiance 
of this claim some Virginia gentlemen formed what they called 
the Ohio Company, and invited settlers to take up land near 
the Ohio River. 

The French then built a chain of forts from Lake Ontario to 
the Ohio Valley; and the governor of Virginia sent out (1753) 
a gallant young Virginian, named George Washington, to warn 
the French to withdraw from the Ohio country. This young 
man, tall, strong, and spirited, belonged to a well-known 



98 WAR AND THE WEST 

family. He had been a surveyor on the frontier and had the 
friendship of Lord Fairfax, a great landowner in Virginia. 
Since the French refused to withdraw, Washington was sent 
out again in 1754, in command of an armed party, to defend 
an English post on the Ohio River. He was too late. On his 
way to the Ohio he met a small French force, and attacked and 
defeated it. He then hastily threw up an intrenchment which 
he called Fort Necessity; but a larger French force soon came 
up and captured it. These little battles on the eastern edge 
of the Ohio basin were the beginning of another war. 

70. French and Indian War (1754-1758). — This struggle, 
called in America the French and Indian War, and in Europe 
the Seven Years' War, raged in America, on the continent of 
Europe, in far-off India, and at sea, where hundreds of mer- 
chant ships were captured on both sides. The two most 
notable events in the early war were the Albany Congress and 
Braddock's expedition. 

Just as the war was breaking out, seven of the colonies sent 
delegates to Albany in 1754 to induce the Indians to nght on 
their side. One of the members was Benjamin Franklin of 
Pennsylvania, who proposed a kind of colonial union, which is 
the germ of the later Union of the United States. 

Braddock's expedition was sent out in 1755 against a small 
force of French troops which was building Fort Duquesne at 
" the forks of the Ohio," the site of the present Pittsburgh. 
Braddock was a brave officer and a good commander, but did 
not understand how to fight savage foes in a wooded country. 
His soldiers built a narrow road, which came to be called Brad- 
dock's Road, and parts of which can still be traced. The most 
capable man in his army was Colonel George Washington, who 
two years before had been ov^er the route. 

The little column arrived almost in sight of Fort Duquesne, 
when it was attacked by the French with Indian allies, and 
totally defeated. Washington wrote to his mother, " I luckily 
escaped without a wound though I had four bullets through 
my coat, and two horses shot under me." It was three 
years before the English were able to return and take the 
fort. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 



99 



One of the painful incidents of this war was the carrying 
away of the French population of Acadia, which had remained 
after the English took possession forty years before (§ 67). 
Fearing that the people would turn against them, the English 
brought these farmers and their families together, destroyed 
their villages, and carried the inhabitants off down the coast. 




General Braddock was accompanied by Colonel Washington on the expedition 
against Fort Duquesne 

Some went as far as New Orleans, and their descendants still 
live in that neighborhood. 

71. Capture of the West by the English (1758-1763). — 
During the first four years of the European war the English 
army had the worst of it in battle after battle; but the French 
navy was almost driven from the sea, so that France could 
not send aid to Canada. William Pitt now arose as the great 



lOO WAR AND THE WEST 

minister and leader of England. Under him the English took 
heart again; the colonists captured the western French posts, 
including Fort Duquesne, and an English fleet and army took 
Louisburg (§ 67). Crown Point on Lake Champlain was also 
taken (i759)- 

Finally, on the lower St. Lawrence River, General James 
Wolfe captured Quebec in one of the most dashing movements 
of the war (1759). He led his men up a steep cliff to the 
Heights of Abraham; there the French under Montcalm were 
defeated, and Quebec surrendered. Meanwhile the British 
forces attacked and captured the French possessions in India, 
and the rich Spanish cities of Manila in the Philippine Islands 
and Havana in Cuba. There was nothing for the French and 
Spanish to do but yield. 

The French had already ceded to Spain (1762) the whole of 
Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and the Island of Orleans on 
which New Orleans stands, east of the river. By the Treaty 
of Paris (1763) France transferred to England: (i) the eastern 
part of Louisiana (except New Orleans) from the Mississippi 
River to the mountain ridges of the Appalachians; (2) the St. 
Lawrence country, including lands and islands near the Great 
Lakes and the St. Lawrence River and Gulf. The English 
gave up Cuba and Manila, but in exchange took Florida from 
Spain, and thus secured, for a time, the whole eastern half of 
the continent of North America. In this way France, after 
two hundred years of effort, lost every square foot of territory 
on the continent; and the cession of Florida to England was 
the first step toward the break-up of the Spanish land empire 
in America. Many officers and soldiers of the American 
armies gained an experience in warfare which was to be useful 
to them in the later Revolution. 

72. New Western Frontier (1763-1766). — The English 
colonists, after fighting so long and so hard, expected that the 
western country would be turned over to them for settlement. 
But a royal order appeared, establishing the so-called " Procla- 
mation Line" (1763); it reserved for the Indians "the land 
and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the 
rivers which fall into the sea [that is, the Atlantic Ocean] 



WESTERN FRONTIER 



lOI 



from the west and northwest." In addition three new British 
colonies were created: (i) Quebec, which included the valley 
of the St, Lawrence River; (2) East Florida; (3) West 
Florida on the Gulf coast. Georgia was extended southward 
to the St. Marys River, which was the north boundary of 
East Florida (map, page 105). 

The Proclamation Line ignored the fact that the original 
charters of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia promised to 
those colonies strips of terri- 
tory as far west as the Pacific 
Ocean; and similar charters of 
Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut were still in force. How- 
ever, New York and Pennsyl- 
vania paid no attention to the 
claims of the two New England 
colonies, which cut right across 
them. 

In spite of the Proclamation 
Line, settlers at once began to 
find their way into the trian- 
gular area lying between the 
Allegheny and Monongahela 
rivers. The northwestern In- 
dians disliked the change of 
masters from the French to the 
English, and rose under Pontiac 
(1763). It took three years of fighting to bring the In- 
dians to acknowledge King George of England as their 
sovereign. 

73. Opening of the West (1758-1774). — As soon as the 
French were driven out, immigrants from Virginia and 
Pennsylvania, most of them Scotch-Irish or German, crossed 
the mountains and built around Fort Pitt a village (1758), 
which grew into the town of Pittsburgh. Virginia also granted 
lands as far as the Ohio River; and several attempts were 
made to set up new western colonies south of the Ohio, such as 
Transylvania and Westsylvania, without the consent of the 




The northwestern Indians, defeated by the 
English Colonel Bouquet, were forced to 
give up their white captives. From a 
painting by Benjamin West 



102 



WAR AND THE WEST 



home government. Nevertheless, till after 1775 there were few 
English-speaking inhabitants of the Ohio country. 




Boonesboro, Kentucky, built under the leadership of Daniel Boone. The high stockade 

and the heavy gate are typical of early frontier settlements 

Farther south a similar movement began under the famous 
explorer, Daniel Boone. He lived in western North Caro- 
lina, and in 1769 he began to explore the country on the 
headwaters of the Tennessee. Thence he followed through 
Cumberland Gap, by a route which for many years was called 
" Boone's Trace," into the rich country of central Kentucky. 
Boone was a fearless pioneer, who thought nothing of spending 
weeks alone in the woods, among savage enemies. The Indians 
once captured him, and he would probably have been burned 
at the stake had he not made a daring escape. 

The first settlement west of the divide was high up in the 
mountains on the headwaters of the Watauga River. Three 
pioneers, William Beane, John Sevier, and James Robertson, 
were leading spirits in the little colony there, under an agree- 
ment which they called the " Watauga Association." 

Most of the settlers had nothing but what was called a 
"tomahawk right" to their land; that is, they cut their initials 
into a tree, and thereafter claimed the land in the neighbor- 
hood. One of the early settlers says that in those days the 
table furniture " consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates, and 
spoons; of wooden bowls, trenchers,' and noggins-; of gourds 
and hardshell squashes." 

' Plates. * Small cups. 




Daniel Boone bad many thriUing escapes from the Indiana 



I04 WAR AM) THK WEST 

74. Summary. — Ihis cliajjler is an account of the rivalry 
and the wars bclvveeii the Spaniards and Frenchmen on the 
one side, and the English on the other, especially for the owner- 
ship of colonies. It briefly describes four intercolonial wars, 
and particularly the opening of the West to the English. 

The English, French, and Spanish colonies all took part in a 
series of four intercolonial wars at intervals from 1689 to 1763. 
In all of these wars English colonists looked upon themselves 
as Englishmen in America. The last of the English colonies, 
Georgia, was planted in J 732 against the protests of Spain. 

A struggle between England and France for territory in North 
America began when the Frencii settled the colony of Louisiana 
(1699) and connected it with Canada by small forts. The net 
result of the second war, for England, was that the French 
gave up their claims to Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Nova 
Scotia (17 13). About 1750 the English began to push across 
the mountains and claim the Ohio Valley. George Washing- 
ton was sent out to protest against the French occupation, and 
took part in the first skirmishes of the French and Indian War 
(1754). Braddock's fatal campaign was made the following year. 
Partly by this pushing westward and partly by Wolfe's 
capture of Quebec in 1759, the English conquered the French 
possessions on the St. Lawrence and the Lakes and also took 
that part of Louisiana which lay east of the Mississippi River. 
By the Proclamation Line the English government tried to 
keep the colonies from extending westward, but Daniel Boone 
and others crossed the mountains and began to make western 
settlements. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. Slates, III, IV. — Greene, Provincial Am. — 
Shepherd, Ilisl. Atlas, 190. — Thwaites, France in Am. 

Histories. Eggleslon, Life in i8th Century, chs. ill, v-vii, ix. — Fisher, 
Col. Era, chs. xii-xx. — Hasbrouck, Boys' Parkman, chs. vii-x. — Sloane, 
French War and Rev., chs. v-ix. — Soulhworlh, Builders of Our Country, 
I. chs. xxi, xxiv, II. chs. iii, xi. — Thwaites, Colonies, §§26, 111-117, 
120-127, 130- 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 100-107, 125-148, 
154-163. — Hart, Contemporaries, II. pt. v; Patriots and Statesmen, I. 
149-250; Source Book, §§ 27, 37-40; Source Readers, II. §§ 32-44. — 
James, Readings, §§ 23, 24. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 9, 41, 73, 163, 187. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 



105 




British colonies in 1770 

Side Lights and Stories. Cooper, Last of the Mohicans (Indians). — 
Craddock, Old Fort Loudon (Tenn.). — Gordy, Am. Leaders and Heroes, 
chs. X, xi, xviii. — Hawthorne, Grandfather' s Chair, pt. ii, chs. vii-ix. — 
Longfellow, Evangeline. — Otis, Hannah of Kentucky. — Oxley, Fife and 
Drum at Louisbourg (1745). — Seawell, Virginia Cavalier (Washington, 
Braddock). — Smith, Old Deerjield Series (French wars). — Tappan, 
Letters from Col. Children, chs. xxi-xxiii. — Wallington, Am. Hist, by 
Am. Poets, I. 98, 103, 1 10-125, 132, 145. — -Washington, Journal. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States. — Mentor, serial no. 35. — Wilson, Am. 
People, II. — Winsor, America, V. 



QUESTIONS 

I. How and when were England and Scotland united? 2. 



Why 



(§63) 
did France and England go to war? 

(§ 64) 3. How did the English colonists look on the mother country? 
4. Why did the colonists join in the wars? 5. What was the Board of 
Trade? 



Io6 WAR AND THE WEST 

(§ 65) 6. How and when was Georgia founded? 7. How did it prosp)er? 

(§ 66) 8. How and when was Louisiana founded? 9. How far did it 
extend? 10. What towns were founded by the French in the Mississippi 
Valley? 

(§67) II. Account of King William's War. 12. What was the Patter- 
son expedition? 13 (For an essay). An account of the Indian raid on 
Deerfield. 14. How and when did the French begin to yield territory 
to the English? 15. What was the result of King George's War? 

(§ 68) 16. What did "the West" mean to the early colonists? 17. 
What was the first western movement in the middle and southern colonies? 
18. How did the Six Nations affect the western movement? 19. How 
did Englishmen reach the western interior? 

(§ 69) 20 (For an essay). Account of Bienville's voyage down the 
Ohio River. 21 (For an essay). Account of George Washington's 
trip to the frontier. 22. Why and where did war break out with the 
French in 1754? 

(§ 70) 23. Account of the Albany Congress. 24. Why was Brad- 
dock's army sent into the West? 25 (For an essay). Account of 
Braddock's defeat. 26 (For an essay). Was it reasonable to remove 
the Acadians? 

(§ 71) 27. How did the English fare in the first part of the French and 
Indian War? 28. What conquests did the English take from the French? 
29. How was North America divided by the treaty of 1763? 

(§ T^) 30. What was the Proclamation Line? 31. What new British 
colonies were created? 32. What far western claims had the coast 
colonies? 33. How did the Indians receive their British masters? 

(§ 73) 34- How was Pittsburgh founded? 35. What efforts were 
made to organize new colonies in the West? 36 (For an essay). Ac- 
counts of Daniel Boone's explorations and adventures. 37. What was 
the Watauga Association? 38. How did the early westerners live? 



CHAPTER VII 



COLONIAL LABOR AND COLONIAL BUSINESS (1689-1763) 

75. Three Groups of Colonies. — During the intercolonial 
wars the existence of three sections in the English colonies was 
brought out sharply. 

(i) The four New England colonies — New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts (includ- 
ing Maine and Plym- 
outh), Connecticut, 
and Rhode Island — 
were much alike. All 
were settled by the 
English, mostly strict 
Puritans; all had the 
same system of towns, 
each with a common 
church and a town 
meeting. All were 
farming communities, 
but in addition all had 
two other pursuits. 
First, they built ships 
from the timber grow- 
ing near the coast, and 
used them in part for 
fisheries, and in part 
for trading. Second, a 
class of keen business 
men bought up furs, 
potash, timber, fish, and rum, and shipped them to Europe or 
to the West Indies. From the profits of the trade they built 
handsome houses, stores and warehouses, and more ships. 

107 




The old Ladd house in Portsmouth, N. H. An 
excellent type of colonial three-story dwelling 



I08 COLONIAL LABOR AND COLONIAL BUSINESS 

(2) The four middle colonies — New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and Delaware — had a mixed population, in- 
cluding Germans, Scotch-Irish, and some other European 
races. Their main occupation was farming, together with 
lumbering and the raising of cattle, but they all had seaports 
and shipping. Pennsylvania soon became the richest of the 
English colonies in North America, and Philadelphia was the 
largest and most prosperous port. New York was held back 
because it was so long cut off from connection with the back 
country by the Iroquois Indians. 

(3) The five colonies in the southern group — Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia — had 
a social and business life of their own. Many independent 
white farmers worked their land, just as in Pennsylvania and 
Connecticut; but much of the land was held in large estates 
and worked by slaves. Most of these estates had a front on 
tidewater, and the interior roads were poor. Although the 
South had several seaport towns such as Baltimore, Norfolk, 
and Savannah, and one city — Charleston — the southerners 
did not build or sail their own ships, and had practically no 
industries except farming and the making of naval stores 
(§ 45). Much grain was exported from Virginia and Maryland, 
tobacco from most of the colonies, and rice and indigo from 
South Carolina. With the proceeds the people bought lux- 
uries, slaves, and part of their food. 

76. A Southern Gentleman. — An interesting southerner of 
that time was William Byrd, founder of the towns of Rich- 
mond and Petersburg, and said to be the richest planter in 
Virginia. Byrd kept buying land till he had 180,000 acres, 
and slaves till he owned hundreds. He was fond of books, 
brought together a library of 3500 volumes, and wrote an 
interesting book called The History of the Dividing Line. 

This is an account of his service in running the boundary 
line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1729. Through 
thick woods and over mountains he pushed his way, finding 
a few frontiersmen, runaway slaves, and Indians in places 
where, as he says, the wet ground " was made a fitter Lodging 
for Tadpoles than Men." He visited the Indians at Notto- 



MASTERS AND SERVANTS I09 

way Town and was " entertained with Sundry War-Dances 
Wherein they endeavour 'd to look as formidable as possible." 
He shot deer and wild turkeys, trapped beavers and otters, 
and throughout made light of all the hardships of the way. 

Byrd owned a good house, silver plate, and handsome fur- 
niture. Like other planters he shipped tobacco direct to 
England, and in return he ordered clothing and luxuries for 
himself and his family. 

77. White Servants. — It is hard now to realize the physical 
toil required in starting the colonies. The Atlantic slope was 
almost entirely covered with trees, some of them, like the 
Waverly oaks near Boston, nearly a thousand years old. The 
settlers cleared the land by girdling, and thus killing, the trees, 
so that the sun could strike in. When the ground was turned 
up and seed was sown among the tree trunks, the rich soil bore 
a large crop. As the trees decayed and their branches fell, they 
were gathered into piles and burned, and in the course of years 
the stumps were destroyed. In the northern colonies millions 
of tons of bowlders and smaller stones had to be thrown ofT the 
fields. Another great labor was the building and repairing of 
roads, which included laying causeways across swamps, cutting 
into steep hills, and removing trees and stumps. 

Land was easy to get, and one man or one family might own 
thousands of acres. Hired servants were brought over to 
work these large estates, but as soon as they could buy land 
they set up for themselves. To meet the need of labor great 
numbers of " indented," or "indentured," servants were im- 
ported. These were men and women legally bound to work 
during a term of years for a particular master; they could be 
whipped if they offended, and brought back if they ran away. 
Many of them were " redemptioners " ; that is, men and 
women brought over by sea captains on speculation, and 
kept as prisoners on board ship, until some one would pay the 
passage money ; in return for this favor they had to serve him 
from one to seven years. George Washington once tried to 
import a shipload of German redemptioners. 

An unusual example of the redemptioner is John Harrower, 
who in 1774 was in London, and so poor that he says, " Being 



no COLONIAL LABOR AND COLONIAL BUSINESS 

reduced to the last shilling I had, I was obliged to go to Vir- 
ginia for four years as a schoolmaster, for bed, board, washing, 
and five pounds during the whole time." After his landing at 
Fredericksburg, Virginia, a gentleman paid his passage, and 
took him home as a servant, and he became the trusted friend 
of the family. 

Another kind of servants consisted of English convicts and 
prisoners of war. Hundreds of Scotchmen who had fought 
against the English government were sent out to be sold in the 
colonies as slaves for life; Indians taken in battle, Dutchmen 
on the Delaware, even Quakers were sold in this way. Some 
of the convicts were entirely innocent and worthy people, some 
of them were the lowest of mankind. 

78. The Slave Trade. — Englishmen boasted of their natu- 
ral freedom from the absolute will of any other man, even 
the king. Though the indentured servants were often treated 
with cruelty and were little better than slaves, their children 
were always free. Nevertheless the English colonists, as 
soon as they landed, began to make slaves of the Indians, on 
the ground that they were heathen and had no rights. But 
Indian slavery was a failure, because few of the Indians knew 
how to work, and they and their children rapidly died off. 

The system of negro slavery began in Virginia (§ 29), and 
soon spread throughout the colonies. The people of New Eng- 
land and the middle colonies used comparatively few slaves, 
but they bought and carried and sold them for others. The 
negro tribes on the west coast of Africa raided their neighbors 
with fearful cruelties to furnish the supply; and the Christians 
of Spain, Portugal, France, and England packed the captives 
into ships and carried them to America by the so-called 
" Middle Passage," from Africa across the mid-Atlantic. The 
profits were high, and the few colonies that tried to limit the 
trade were overruled by the English government. 

Slavery and the slave trade were always mistakes. They 
led every colony to deny the rights of man to a part of its 
population; and they brought into America a strange and then 
savage race which otherwise would never have come. The 
history of the northern colonies shows that slavery was not 



SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY III 

necessary to open up a new country; free labor would have 
been better; and all sections would have been happier and 
wealthier without slaves. 

79. Colonial Slavery. — One excuse for slavery was that 
the negroes were brought over in order to make them Chris- 
tians; but when Christianized the negro was still a slave, and 
every child of a slave woman was born a slave. On the other 
hand, slaves might be set free, and then their children would 
be free. Such free negroes might hold property like other 
people; and in all the colonies except two, free negroes could 
at one time or another vote if they had the amount of property 
required of a white voter. 

Slaves and indentured servants would often run away, and 
the newspapers of the times abound in advertisements such as 
the following: " A young servant man named William Haines, 
small stature, ruddy complexion, big nose, big blue eyes, pock 
broken, has no hair, branded on the brawn of his thumb." 
Or the following: " To be sold, a likely negro boy, this country 
born, and a good plain gold watch." 

Some of the colonists saw at the time that slavery was a bad 
thing for the negroes, and worse for the whites. In 1688 the 
Germantown Quakers passed a vote against it, on the ground 
that, " Now though they are black, we cannot conceive there 
is more liberty to have them slaves, as [than] it is to have other 
white ones. There is a saying, that we should do to all men 
like as we will be done ourselves." Several Quakers, espe- 
cially John Woolman, went up and down the colonies urging 
people to give up their slaves. John Adams and Benjamin 
Franklin were both very proud of never having owned slaves; 
and just before the Revolution an antislavery society was 
founded in Pennsylvania. 

80. Colonial System of Trade. — All the colonizing nations 
in this period depended on the " Colonial System," the idea 
of which was that each colony was planted, not so much for 
the benefit of the people who lived there, as for the profit of 
the merchants of the mother country. 

Spain pushed this very far; no one was allowed to settle in 
Spanish colonies or even to visit them, without permission from 



112 COLONIAL LABOR AND COLONIAL BUSINESS 

the home government. Spanish vessels, when allowed to trade 
with America, had to come and go in a fleet which was called 
" the plate fleet " because it brought home silver, which was 
often called plate. Spanish colonies had to send all their sur- 
plus products to Spain through Spanish merchants. They 
could not trade freely from one colony to another. 

The Colonial System of the English was more liberal. The 
so-called Navigation Acts or Acts of Trade (§ 42) made 
provision as follows: (i) All the colonial exports had to be 
carried in " English " vessels; but vessels owned in the 
colonies were considered English. (2) " Enumerated goods," 
which included most of the exports and imports of the colo- 
nies, had to pass through English ports and pay a profit to 
English merchants. (3) The colonists were not allowed to 
make rolled iron, or to make hats or woolen goods that would 
compete with English importations. (4) On the other hand, 
the British government paid bounties for the production of 
such things as silk and naval stores; and the colonists had a 
good market in England for many of their surplus products. 

Whenever the colonists felt hampered by the Navigation 
Acts they simply disobeyed them. Smuggling was common, 
and some Bostonians were guilty of locking a revenue officer 
in the cabin of the ship Liberty (1768) till several casks of 
Madeira wine could be smuggled off. In 1733 the British 
government passed what was called the " Molasses Act," 
which was intended to force the continental colonists to buy 
their sugar of the British West India colonies; but somehow 
French and Spanish sugar was brought in just the same. 

81. Internal Business. — In all the colonies the principal 
occupation was raising crops and animals. The settlers, from 
Virginia to New Hampshire, cultivated wheat and other grain; 
Indian corn grew everywhere; tobacco was raised in many 
colonies, and rice and indigo in the far South. In most parts 
of the country horses, sheep, cattle, and hogs abounded. All 
along the coast, oysters, clams, and fish were abundant. There 
was plenty of wild game, such as deer, turkeys, ducks, and 
geese. The colonists did not lack food, and had a surplus to 
export. 



114 COLONIAL LABOR AXD COLONIAL BUSINESS 

The fisheries on the New England coast were especially 
valuable. Besides taking the inshore catch of mackerel, New 
England vessels fished offshore on the banks of Newfoundland 
(§ 38), and brought home great quantities of codfish — jok- 
ingly called " Cape Cod turkey." Codfish were salted and 
packed to meet a large demand in the West Indies and else- 
where. 

Several kinds of merchants bought and sold among the 
people: 

(i) The traders with the Indians carried stocks of beads, 
blankets, calico, iron kettles, rum, tomahawks, gunpowder, 
and muskets, which they exchanged for furs and deerskins 
and buffalo robes. 

(2) In the villages and at the crossroads could be found 
small stores for local business. The storekeeper would take 
grain, pork, beef, or butter and eggs, at agreed rates. In 
return he sold salt meats and fish, flour, dry goods, needles 
and pins, tools, cloth, tobacco, molasses, rum, and a hun- 
dred other things. 

(3) The big merchants of the larger places gathered prod- 
ucts through the country traders or direct from the pro- 
ducers, and made up shipments to send to other colonies and 
to England. 

82. Manufactures and Currency. — Practically no facto- 
ries existed in the colonies. Some pig and bar iron was made 
on the coast, and most of it went to England. Out of the rod 
and finished iron which came back the blacksmiths fashioned 
horseshoes and wrought-iron nails, such as can still be found 
in old houses. Saddles and harnesses, wagons, doors, and 
windows were all made by local workmen. There were no 
cloth factories and no cloth-making machines. Most of the 
people wore homespun; that is, wool which was carded, spun 
into yarn by the old-fashioned spinning wheels, and then 
woven on a hand loom. Many farmers made, on their own 
farms, almost everything that they used or wore; and in the 
South the skilled slaves made tools, built houses, and wove cloth. 

The colonists very much needed a good currency; that 
is, money which passes from hand to hand, and which would 



MANUFACTURES AND FOREIGN TRADE II5 

be the same all over the country. The gold and silver in 
circulation came mostly from foreign countries — Spanish gold 
doubloons, Portuguese moidores, English guineas, and small 
silver from all over the western world. The coin best known 
was the Mexican dollar, often called a " piece of eight." 
There were no banks or bank bills, but the colonial govern- 
ments often issued paper money. This was not always re- 
deemed in coin, and frequently people would not take it at its 
face value. Therefore, the English government, about the 
time of the French and Indian War, forbade any further issues. 
Because of the lack of money, much of the business was carried 
on by barter, so many oxhides or bushels of wheat being 
given for so many pounds of tobacco or so many gallons of 
molasses. 

83. Foreign Trade. — The trade from the continental 
colonies was about equally divided between the West Indies 
and England, and there were several triangular trades. For 
instance, vessels took rum and other trade goods from New 
England to Africa; with these goods they bought slaves, whom 
they carried to the West Indies; there they traded the slaves 
for hard cash and molasses; then they took the molasses 
home to make more rum. 

The trade to England was chiefly in furs, fish, and lumber. 
The best and tallest trees in the forest were reserved to make 
masts for the ships of the English navy. The burning of the 
trees to clear the land left quantities of valuable ashes, 
and the lye or potash obtained from them was a regular 
article of trade. From the South came the naval stores for 
which there was a brisk demand from over sea. 

In exchange the merchants bought dress goods for men 
and women, such as oznabrig, which was a German linen; 
paduasoy, v/hich was Italian silk; and velvets and brocades 
for the gentry. They imported locks and other hardware, 
powder, shot, and guns, farm tools, carriages, wine from 
Madeira and Spain, crockery for the poor, and fine china for 
the rich. 

Anybody who could secure a cargo might sail across the 
seas and sell it according to his best judgment. Much of the 

hart's sch. hist. — 7 



Il6 COLONIAL LABOR AND COLONIAL BUSINESS 

trade to the West Indies was of this kind, but part of the busi- 
ness was done by the wealthy firms, such as the Morrises in 
Philadelphia and the Hancocks in Boston, who bought all 
sorts of produce and even ships, which they sold abroad. Such 
firms acted as bankers, and would collect money for their 
customers abroad. 

84. Travel and Transportation. — Most of the roads in 
the colonies were crooked, rough, and swampy\ Few of the 
streams were bridged, so that one of the incidents of travel 
was to ford or swim a ri\er, or to cross it in a boat. In the back 
country, especially in the mountains, the only roads were 
horse trails, so that all goods had to be packed on horses, and 
travelers had either to ride horseback or go afoot. 

A lively lady. Madam Knight, has left an account of a hard 
horseback trip which she made from Boston to New Haven in 
1704. The only way to secure a guide was to go along with 
the carrier of the mail. She had to stay at rude houses and 
inns, where the people annoyed her with questions and re- 
marks such as, " Who are you? " — " Where are you going? " 
— "I never see a woman on the road so dreadful late in all 
the days of my versall life!" She crossed a broad rixer in a 
little canoe, her horse swimming behind her; and she arrived 
fresh and cheerful. 

The easiest way to tra\el from one colony to another was 
by sea; and there was plenty of opportunity to take passage in 
small vessels, such as sloops, schooners, and brigs. Travelers 
bound across the sea preferred the larger merchant ships; the 
well-to-do paid for cabins and took meals with the captain, 

85. Pirates and Privateers. — One of the drawbacks to 
ocean travel was the great danger from pirates. The West 
Indies for nearly a century were infested with robbers, com- 
monly called filibusters or buccaneers, who made up fleets of 
vessels strong enough to take fortified cities. One of the 
leaders, the Englishman Sir Henry Morgan, captured and 
sacked old Panama, near the site of the southern entrance to 
the present Panama Canal. Many of the wretched inhabi- 
tants were put to torture to make them reveal where they had 
hidden their money. 



PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS 



117 



Pirates long ranged boldly up and down the Atlantic coast. 
The notorious pirate Teach was captured by two sloops sent 
out by the governor of Virginia, and the victorious vessels 
came home with the pirate's head stuck on a bowsprit. All 
the spoils of the pirates came out of the profits of honest 
traders, and they would destroy a dozen vessels and murder 
a hundred people, in order to steal a few score pieces of gold. 

Whenever there was war, vessels were subject to capture 
by the ships of war and the privateers of the other side (§ 64). 
These, unlike the pirates, did 
not kill the passengers or 
after they stopped resistin 
sent the vessels and cargoe 
ports and sold them for th( 
efit of the captors. O 
other hand, 
the English 
colonists also 
took out 
letters of 
marque au- 
t h o r i z i n g 
them to cap- 
ture the mer- 
chantmen of 
enemies, and 
seized hun- 
d r e d s of 
French and 

Spanish ships, so that, after all, privateering was a kind of 
exchange. 

86. Summary. — This chapter adds to the account of social 
life in Chapter V, a description of the way in which the colonists 
carried on their business affairs. This includes free and slave 
labor, foreign trade, and the difficulties and restrictions upon 
that trade. 

The English colonies were grouped into three sections which 
were somewhat unlike in climate, people, and productions. 




The pirate Stede Bonnet, a terror to shipping from Maine to the Gulf, 
was captured by Colonel Rhett in 1718, after a five-hour fight off 
the coast of South Carolina 



Il8 COLONIAL LABOR AND COLONIAL BUSINESS 

New England, besides its farming, carried on fishing, lum- 
bering, shipbuilding, and trading; the middle colonies had 
about the same industries, except the fishing, and enjoyed a 
large foreign trade; the southern colonies lived almost entirely 
from their crops and naval stores. The South was especially 
proud of its handsome estates and the agreeable life of the 
planters. 

In all the colonies there was a class of white servants bound 
to serve for a term of years or for life, and large numbers of 
negroes were brought over every year from Africa by the cruel 
slave trader. Slavery was contrary to free democratic govern- 
ment, and some people, especially the Quakers, objected to it. 

The colonial trade of all nations was limited by navigation 
laws, intended to give a good part of the profits of the oversea 
trade to home merchants. The English Acts of Trade were 
rather easy, and when they were strict the colonial merchants 
simply disobeyed them. 

Settlers had plenty of food and were well supplied by trad- 
ers of various kinds. The fisheries, especially for cod, were 
very valuable. The colonists made some pig iron and manu- 
factured most of their farm and household implements, and 
spun and wove their own woolen homespun. They used 
foreign gold and silver and some paper money. They traded 
with England and the West Indies, and rich merchants im- 
ported silks, linens, and other luxuries. 

Transportation by land was difficult because of the bad 
roads and long distances; sea travel was easier, though subject 
to the dangers of shipwreck, of pirates, and, in time of war, of 
privateers. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Wall Maps, no. 7. 

Histories. Bogart, Economic Hist. (2d ed.), chs. iii-vi. — Channing, 
Un. Slates, II. chs. ix, xiii, xvii. — Coman, Industrial Hist. (Rev-, cd.), 
ch. ill. — Earle, Stage-Coach and Tavern Days. — Eggleston, Our First 
Century, chs. xviii, xix, xxii, xxv. — Fiske, Old Virginia, ch. xvi. — Moore, 
Industrial Hist., 21-26, 37-54, 61-87, 107-199. 439-447- — Weedcn, 
Econ. and Social Hist, of New Engl. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 139-141, 148-154. — 
Hart, Contemporaries, II. §§ 85-89, 102-108; Source Book, §§ 33-35, 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS II9 

43, 46, 48; 'Source Readers, I. §§ 13-18, 50-54-, II. §§ 12-36. — Mac- 
Donald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 15, 19, 22, 25, 28. 

Side Lights and Stories. Burnaby, Travels. — Caruthers, Knights of 
the Horseshoe. — Fisher, True Benjamin Franklin. — Franklin, Autobi- 
ography. — Harland, His Great Self (Byrd). — Harrower, Diary (Re- 
demptioner, in Am. Hist. Rev., VI). — Stockton, Buccaneers and Pirates; 
Kate Bonnet. — Stuart, Carried Off (Pirates). — Woolman, Jotirnal. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, III. — Bogart, Economic Hist. — Coman, 
Itidustrial Hist. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 75) I. Name the principal British colonies in North America. 2. 
Name the colonies and describe the business and industries of New Eng- 
land. 3. Name the middle colonies and describe their business and 
industries. 4. Name the southern colonies and describe their business 
and industries. 

(§ 76) 5. How did rich southern planters such as Byrd live? 

(§ 77) 6. How was the land prepared for tillage? 7. What were the 
white servants and how were they treated? 8. Who were the redemp- 
tioners? 9 (For an essay). Life of white servants. 

(§ 78) 10. Why did Indian slavery break down? 11. How was the 
slave trade carried on? 12. Was slavery a good thing? 

(§ 79) I3- How were free negroes treated? 14 (For an essay). Ac- 
counts of runaway slaves in colonial times. 15. Who first agitated 
against slavery in the colonies? 

(§ 80) 16. What was the Colonial System? 17. What were the prin- 
cipal provisions of the Acts of Trade? 18. W'hat was the Molasses Act? 

(§ 81) 19. What were the principal colonial products? 20. How was 
the colonial internal trade carried on? 

(§ 82) 21. What were the principal colonial manufactures? 22. What 
sort of currency circulated in the colonies? 

(§ 83) 23. What were the principal exports? 24. What were the 
principal imports? 25. How was foreign trade carried on? 26 (For an 
essay). Accounts of colonial voyages across the ocean. 

(§ 84) 27. How did people travel within the colonies? 28 (For an 
essay). An account of a colonial journey. 

(§ 85) 29. What were the dangers in ocean travel? 30 (For an 
essay). Accounts of colonial pirates. 31. What were privateers? 



CHAPTER VIII 

WHY THERE WAS A REVOLUTION (1763-1774) 

87. The British Empire (1763). — After the end of the long 
colonial wars the English colonists were as well off as any other 
people in the world. They were proud of being Britons, as 




1 1 iiiiiiii ^B I 

GULF OFW j.) BAHAMA 

MEXICO '^Vis. 



VIROIM ^ 

'•C^^^7 -_ BARBUDA 
iTtouA 



The British Empire in 1775 

the English, Scotch, 
and Welsh were called ; 
though the names 
"England" and "Eng- 
lish " were common 
instead of " Great Brit- 
ain " and " British," 
just as they are often 
used now. The colonists liked to think of themselves as 
part of the British Empire, which included Great Britain, 
Ireland, and three groups of distant colonies, as follows: 

(i) The Asiatic possessions, of which the richest was a 
portion of India. 

120 




THE BRITISH EMPIRE 121 

(2) The British West Indies, which included Jamaica and 
some of the smaller islands, and the little settlement of Belize 
on the coast of Central America. 

(3) The continental colonies of North America. In the 
period from 1763 to 1775 this last group was divided into 
nineteen units as follows: (a) The thirteen colonies from 
New Hampshire to Georgia, which later became the thirteen 
original United States. (b) The four northern colonies: 
Hudson's Bay Company, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and 
Quebec, which was extended (1774) to include the region be- 
tween the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, (c) The two little 
southern colonies of East Florida and West Florida. 

88. How the British Empire was Ruled. — Although the 
colonies had a rapidly growing population, profitable trade, 
low taxes, and an easy-going government, about 1763 trouble 
arose between Great Britain and the North American colonies. 
To understand it we must know a few details about the govern- 
ment of the British Empire. People talked about the " Con- 
stitution of the Empire," but there was no written document 
like the present Constitution of the United States. The 
British Constitution meant only the habits and customs 
which were usual in making laws and carrying on the home 
government and the government of the colonies. The principal 
customs affecting the colonies were as follows: 

(i) Certain general laws for all parts of the empire were 
made by a Parliament composed of two bodies: a House of 
Lords who inherited their titles and their right to sit in Par- 
liament, and a House of Commons elected from England and 
Scotland. The colonists had, therefore, no part in choosing 
the body that would make laws for them. 

(2) Each colony in America had its own government, with 
an elected assembly, and local governments in towns or 
counties; but the governors of nearly all the colonies were 
appointed by the home government; and the laws passed by 
the assemblies could be vetoed by the governors, or (if the 
governors signed them) by the home government. 

(3) The commerce of the colonies was regulated by the Acts 
of Trade (§ 80), which aimed to prevent direct trade with 



122 



W^IY THERE WAS A REVOLUTION 



the neighboring Spanish and French colonies in the West 
Indies. 

(4) Most of the expenses, both of the colonies and of the 
mother country, were met by laying taxes, which' required 
the owners of property to pay a percentage of its value eT«ery 
year into the public treasury. The English people had long en- 
joyed the privilege of " No taxation without representation "; 

that is, taxes could be 
laid only by Parliament 
or by other selected 
bodies. That method 
was also usual in the 
thirteen colonies, where 
ihc assemblies voted the 
colonial taxes. 

(5) The colonists also 
shared in thf great "inal- 
ienable rights" of Eng- 
lishmen (§ 7); that is, 
rights which neither king 
nor Parliament nor colo- 
nial governments could 
take away. Such rights 
I he colonists claimed as 
a part of their birthright 
as Englishmen. As long 
as they had them, they 
felt well contented with 
their gox'crnment, and 
with their place in the 
British Empire. 
89. Efforts of the Home Country to Govern (1760-1767). — 
This content was disturbed when in 1760 George III came to 
the British throne. In one of his early speeches he said, " Born 
and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton." 
He was in many ways a good man, upright, truthful, and true 
to his friends; but he was a poor king, for he was narrow, 
stubborn, and determined to be stronger than Parliament. 




Patrick Henry's fame as an eloquent speaker began 
in 1763 when he won a suit known as the 
" Parson's Cause " 



STAMP ACT CONTROVERSY 1 23 

The British government soon began to put pressure on the 
colonists by enforcing the Acts of Trade. 

How could the colonists find a way of getting out from under 
the weight of this new interest in their affairs? James Otis of 
Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia, and others declared 
that Americans were not bound to obey acts of Parliament or 
orders of the king unless they kept within the Constitution. 
But nobody was sure just what "the Constitution" meant. 
Probably their arguments never reached the king and his 
advisers, but they were widely read in America. 

90. Stamp Act Controversy (1765-1767). — The colonists 
might have yielded to the Acts of Trade, but a new cause of 
trouble arose when the British government thought it was time 
for the American colonies to pay part of the expense of the 
army that was defending the whole empire. In 1765 a Stamp 
Act was passed by Parliament, requiring the use of British 
stamps on legal papers, on business documents, and on news- 
papers in the colonies. The British did not intend to send 
money away from America to support the home government; 
nevertheless the colonists at once objected. 

Benjamin Franklin, then in England, protested in advance, 
and throughout the colonies the Stamp Act was denounced in 
public meetings, speeches, and pamphlets. The favorite form of 
objection was, " Taxation without representation is tyranny." 
Since the colonists could not conveniently send men to repre- 
sent them in London, they argued that they could never 
rightfully be taxed for any purpose by Parliament. 

From arguments the colonists soon passed to violence, to 
riots, and to mobs. The house of Governor Hutchinson in 
Boston was stormed and looted. Then a Stamp Act Congress 
was called to meet in New York in 1765. The delegates, 
representing nine of the colonies, drew up a Declaration of 
Rights which roundly declared that it was the natural privi- 
lege of the Americans to be free from such taxes. This un- 
expected storm caused Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act 
(1766), but the next year the Townshend Acts were passed, 
laying duties on paper, tea, and some other things imported 
into the colonies. 



124 



WHY THERE WAS A REVOLUTION 



91. Beginning of Resistance (1767-1773). —After the 
Townshend Acts, there was no more peace in the colonies. As 
John Dickinson of Pennsylvania wrote in his Letters from a 
Farmer, the colonists felt that " we cannot be free, without 
being secure in our property." The colonial assemblies began 
to ask sister colonies to join them in protests, and merchants in 




various places united 
in "Non-Importation 
Agreements" against 
British goods, which 
we should now call 
" boycotts." 

Troops were sent 
over to keep Boston in 
order. In lyyoastrect 
figh t b e g a n w h e n 
some boys snowballed 
a soldier; several people were killed, and the incident was 
called the " Boston Massacre." The British taxes were with- 
drawn, except the trifling one of threepence per pound on tea. 
But the colonists were not willing to pay ev^n that. 

In December, 1773, in the so-called " Boston Tea Party," a 
crowd of white men disguised as Indians boarded some tea 



BEGINNINGS OF WAR 



125 



ships in Boston harbor and threw the cargo overboard. They 
were acting against the law, but felt that nothing else would 
rouse the English people to a sense of the determination of the 
colonists not to pay taxCvS, no matter how small, to the home 
government. 

92. Drifting into War (1774-1775). — On receiving the news 
of the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed acts closing the 
port of Boston, and suspending the charter of Massachusetts. 
This brought the whole quarrel to a crisis. One man, Samuel 
Adams of Boston, believed that 
the only way out was to break 
loose from Great Britain. He 
was a shrewd, hard-headed poli- 
tician, and he organized Com- 
mittees of Correspondence to 
keep the various towns of 
Massachusetts in touch with 
each other. Virginia suggested 
similar committees to corre- 
spond between the colonies, 
and then proposed a general 
Congress. In response, toward 
the end of 1774, representatives 
from twelve colonies met in 
Philadelphia in what is called 
the " First Continental Con- 
gress." By "Continental" they meant the mainland colonies 
of North America. 

Like the Stamp Act Congress, this body drew up a Declara- 
tion of Rights and an appeal to the king. They insisted that 
they were willing to accept acts of Parliament for " securing 
the commercial advantages of the whole empire," but no sort 
of taxation by Parliament. Before breaking up, the Congress 
framed what was called the " Act of Association "; this was 
a general boycott against the importation of any goods from 
England. Very harsh and violent means were used to carry 
out this boycott, such as tarring and feathering some of those 
who bought British goods. 




One method of carrying out the boycott 
against EngUsh goods 



126 WHY THERE WAS A REVOLUTION 

93. Apparent Reasons for Revolution (1775). — -Most of 
the Americans still wanted to remain in the British Empire, 
but they felt that they could not bear the strain unless the 
home government gave up every attempt to tax. This was the 
view of many of the greatest English statesmen, especially of 
William Pitt (§ 71), who had become Earl of Chatham, and of 
Charles James Fox, who was the leader in an English move- 
ment against the desire of George III "to be a king." On 
the king's side was the prime minister, Lord North, who, by 
bribery and intimidation, kept together a majority in Parlia- 
ment to support the king. 

The colonists put forward many reasons for their discontent, 
mostly based on charges that the British government was tyran- 
nical and unjust. The old argument against " taxation without 
representation " was one of the strongest. A few people were 
afraid that the English were going to introduce the Episcopal 
Church into all the colonies and force them to receive bishops. 

At this time it was still the popular theory that George III 
was a good king, but was misled by wicked ministers who gave 
him bad advice. Later in the Revolution the Americans 
came to believe that he was a tyrant. 

The colonists were not desperately oppressed, but they were 
alert to resist the encroachments of tyranny. Thus in all local 
matters they had secured and maintained for themselves more 
freedom and self-government than the people in England. 
Their industry, moreover, had brought them prosperity. In 
no other country in the world were the people on the average 
so well-fed, well-housed, and comfortable ; nowhere were taxes 
so low ; nowhere did the people exercise so much control over 
their own government. 

94. Real Reasons for Revolution (1775). — The real reason 
for the Revolution was that since the people were more used 
to free government than the English at home, they looked 
upon every effort of Parliament to tax them as an effort to 
deprive them of part of their freedom. If plain Americans 
could safely vote and hold office, if they could select good 
representatives to make laws for them and carry on pubUc 
affairs, why should the home government interfere at all ? 



APPARENT AND REAL REASONS 12/ 

Another serious cause of the Revolution was the grievances 
of the business men. Although the Acts of Trade (§ 80) gave 
the colonies many advantages, their purpose was to turn the 
main profit of all the business between the colonies and the 
home country into the hands of British merchants. Another 
trouble was that some of the royal governors and military ofiicers 
in America looked down upon " the provincials," and that did 
not make the colonists feel more kindly toward the English. 

Down to 1775 the Americans were willing to stay in the 
empire if they could have their own way on the questions that 
had then arisen. All that they asked was practically the same 
kind of self-government that Canada now enjoys as a colony 
in the British Empire. 

Some honest men, like Governor Hutchinson of Massa- 
chusetts, thought the colonies ought not to insist on their 
rights. Others, like Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania, were 
in favor of protesting, and then accepting whatever decision 
might be made in England. Others, like John Adams and 
George Washington, became convinced that the only thing to 
do was to set up a government of their own, even if they had 
to fight for it. Underneath all was the thought that the col- 
onies could take care of themselves. 

95. Benjamin Franklin, an American Gentleman. — One 
evidence that the Revolution was justified is the fact that the 
best and ablest men in the colonies believed that their liberty 
was in danger. When Benjamin Franklin heartily joined in 
the war, there must have been reason for it. Franklin was 
the son of a Boston business man ; as a boy he betook himself 
to Philadelphia, which was to be his home for the rest of his 
life. He was the only American humorous writer of his time, 
and the only one who was read throughout the colonies. 

His most famous work is Poor Richard's Almanac. Besides 
useful information about the moon and tides and eclipses, 
Franklin crammed his almanac with proverbs and old saws 
and good advice, such as: " God helps them that help them- 
selves"; "Plow deep while sluggards sleep"; "Never leave 
that till to-morrow which you can do to-day " ; " Honesty is the 
best policy." 



128 



WHY THERE WAS A REVOLUTION 



Franklin carried on an excellent newspaper in Philadelphia, 
and was a general printer and publisher. He was a public- 
spirited man and raised the great sum of £5000 for a school 
for poor children, which later developed into the University 
of Pennsylvania. He founded a public library. He was a 

member of the city 
government and of 
the colonial assem- 
bly. While he was 
abroad he was the 
official agent in 
England for several 
colonies. 

Franklin was the 
shrewdest, most 
practical man of 
his time, always 
trying to improve 
things. He was 
a scientific man, 
the first to prove 
that lightning is 
the same thing as 
electricity made by 
rubbing amber or 
glass. He was the 
essence of homely 
wisdom and good 
nature. At the 
end of his life he 

Benjamin Franklin as he entered Philadelphia. Statue at published an .1 lllo- 
the University of Pennsylvania , . , , i • i 

biography, which 
is one of the best books of the kind e\er written. Franklin 
was one of the mainstays of the American uprising. While 
in England he did his best to persuade the British go\ern- 
ment to >ield; when that became hopeless, he came back to 
America (1775), and threw himself heart and soul into the 
Revolution. 




SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 1 29 

96. Summary. — This short chapter contains an account 
of the discontent of the colonies and their quarrels with the 
home country, leading up to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 
and the First Continental Congress of 1774. 

After the French and Indian War the colonists seemed 
happier and better off than ever before. They belonged to 
the great British Empire and did not mind that it somewhat 
limited their trade and controlled their government; but they 
claimed the right of "no taxation without representation " 
and the inalienable rights of free Englishmen. 

When the British government tried to enforce the Acts of 
Trade, the colonists protested ; when a Stamp Act was passed, 
laying a tax upon them, they called a Stamp Act Congress 
(1765). The Stamp Act was withdrawn, but other, taxes 
were laid by Parliament and the colonists again objected; 
and when all the taxes were withdrawn except one on tea, they 
still objected, and the Boston Tea Party (1773) was an open 
defiance of the British government. 

The other colonies took alarm and joined in the First Con- 
tinental Congress (1774), which tried to make England under- 
stand that the colonies were determined and would stand 
together. 

The colonists declared that the home country was tyrannical 
and that the king was led astray by ba,d advisers, but the real 
reasons why they finally broke away are deeper. The two 
main causes are dislike of the Acts of Trade, and the feeling 
that the colonies were strong .enough to govern themselves. 
In this controversy Benjamin Franklin was a leading spirit, 
and his belief in the Revolution has always been one of the 
best reasons for thinking that it was necessary. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. States, V. — Epoch Maps, no. 5. — Howard, 
Preliminaries of Rev. 

Histories. Becker, Beginnings, 202-247. — Coman, Industrial Hist., 
89-106. — Fisher, Struggle for Am. Indep., I. chs. i-xxiii. — Fiske, Am. 
Rev., I.; War of Indep., 39-85. — Howard, Preliminaries of Rev. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 5, 11, 16, 21, 33. — Beard, Readings, 
§§ 6-8. — Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 167-194. — Harding, 



130 WHY THERE WAS A REVOLUTION 

Select Orations, nos. i, 2. — Hart, Contemporaries, \\. §§ 130-158. — Hill, 
Liberty Docs., chs. xi, xii. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 29- 
44; Select Charters, nos. 53-80. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 68, 156, 173, 179, 
199, 200. 

Side Lights and Stories. Barr, Strawberry Handkerchief. — Coffin, 
Daughters of the Rev. — Cooke, Virginia Comedians ; Colonel Fairfax. — 
Graydon, Memoirs. — Hawthorne, Grandfather' s Chair, pt. iii, chs. ii-vii; 
My Kinsman, Major Molynetix. — Kaler, Charming Sally. — Wallington, 
Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, I. 125-145. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, V. — Chase, Beginnings of Am. Rev. — 
Wilson, Atn. People, II. — Winsor, America, VI; Memorial Hist, of 
Boston, HI. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 87) I. What were the British possessions in 1763? 2. What were 
the British continental colonies in 1763? 

(§88) 3. What was the British Constitution? 4. How were laws made 
for the colonies? 5. What sort of governments had the colonies? 6. 
How was the commerce of the colonies regulated? 7. What did "No 
taxation without representation" mean? 8. What were the inalienable 
rights of the colonists? 

(§ 89) 9. What kind of king was George HI? 10. How did Otis and 
Henry try to avoid control by the mother country? 

(§90) II. What was the Stamp Act? 12. What was the objection 
to it? 13 (For an essay). Accounts of Stamp Act riots. 14. What 
was the Stamp Act Congress and what did it do? 

(§ 91) 15- What was non-importation? 16. How did the British try 
to keep the colonies in order? 17 (For an essay). An account of the 
Boston Tea Party. 

(§ 92) 18. How did Samuel Adams organize for the Rev'olution? 19. 
Account of the First Continental Congress. 20. What was the Act of 
Association and how was it enforced? 

(§93) 21. What were the apparent reasons for the Revolution? 22. 
What friends had the colonists in Great Britain? 23. What did the colo- 
nists think of King George HI? 24. What advantages had the colonies 
under British rule? 

(§ 94) 25. What were the real reasons for the Revolution? 26. What 
kind of government by England would have satisfied the colonists? 
27. What were the opinions of the colonists on the Revolution? 

(§ 95) 28 (For an essay). Account of the life of Benjamin F"ranklin. 
29 (For an essay). Some good advice taken from Poor Richard's Almanac. 
30. What services did Franklin render to the colonies? 31. What made 
Franklin a great man? 



CHAPTER IX 
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1775-1783) 

97. Outbreak of War (1775). — No answer was made in 
England to the appeals of the Continental Congress of 1774. 
Meanwhile the troubles in Massachusetts grew worse. The 
towns began to drill their militia, who were called " minute- 
men " because they were ready to march at a minute's notice. 
The British governor, General Gage, on the night of April 18, 
1775, sent out a force from Boston to seize military stores at 
Concord, eighteen miles away. An alarm was spread by Paul 
Revere, who rode ahead in the darkness warning the people 
along the route. 

Early in the morning of April 19, the British reached the 
village of Lexington, and there saw a line of militiamen drawn 
up across their road. " Disperse, ye rebels! " cried Major 
Pitcairn, the British commander; but the raw colonials held 
their ground. A shot was fired, probably by the English. 
Then came a volley and several of the colonials fell dead. 
War had broken out at last. The British column marched on 
to Concord and destroyed some stores, but was again resisted 
by the minutemen, and retreated in confusion to Boston, 
worried and fired upon all the way. The militia of Massa- 
chusetts and neighboring states closed in and besieged the 
British in Boston. 

A few days later (May 10, 1775) the Second Continental 
Congress assembled in Philadelphia; all the thirteen colonies 
from New Hampshire to Georgia were represented. None of 
the other six continental colonies joined in the Revolution. 
Unless the colonies were willing that the Massachusetts leaders 
should be treated as traitors by England, Congress must do 
something at once. Pennsylvania and Virginia, the largest of 
the middle and the southern colonies, took the lead in support- 

HART'S SCH. HIST. — 8 I3I 








KEVOLUTIONAKY 
WAR 

SCALE or MILES 



Routes of Ainerieaas 
.Routes of the British 



SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION 



133 



ing Massachusetts. The whole Congress joined In voting to 
raise men, money, and ships. It appointed Colonel George 
Washington to be general and head of the Continental forces, 
and sent him to take command of the troops that were besieg- 
ing the British in Boston. For nearly a year longer Congress 
hoped that King George would yield, and the Americans still 
called themselves Englishmen; but all the while the colonists 
were capturing British posts and ships, and raising an army to 
defend themselves against their home government. 

98. Soldiers of the 
Revolution. — It looked 
like a desperate thing 
for three million colo- 
nists to attack eleven 
million British. They 
began without a navy, 
while the British had 
270 ships of war. They 
set out with raw militia 
to fight against a power- 
ful regular army, 
though many of the 
Americans had never 
seen an enemy other 
than a wild Indian. 

The British govern- 
ment not only raised 
troops in England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, 
but sent over to Germany and hired about 30,000 Germans, 
commonly called " Hessians." King Frederick the Great of 
Prussia scoffed at the little German princes who were willing to 
sell their subjects to suffer hardship and danger, for a bonus of 
about $35 per man — and more if he were killed ! Most of the 
American troops were organized in what was called the "state 
lines"; that is, state militia regiments enlisted for short terms. 

Washington throughout the war protested against depend- 
ing upon these militianien. Many served from the purest 




Colonial soldiers, wearing Revolutionary uniform 



134 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 

motives of patriotism, but others were drawn into the army by 
money, bounties, and promises of land. Though personally 
brave, they disliked discipline and would sometimes leave 
when their term of service expired, even in the midst of a 
march against the enemy. Neither the Continental Congress 
nor the colonies which became states were willing to give 
Washington what he needed; that is, an army of sav 30,000 
men, enlisted for several years, responsible only to Congress, 
well-drilled, and accustomed to obey orders. The result of 
the militia system was that about 250,000 different men were 
enlisted, each serving on the average less than one year, besides 
about 200,000 militia serving for brief periods. 

Besides the regular troops, both sides used Indians. They 
were a poor dependence, because they would not settle down 
to fight through a campaign, and always wanted to scalp and 
burn white prisoners. Negroes were enlisted in both armies, 
particularly in the American, and some slaves were set free, to 
become soldiers. The British also made use of the loyalists 
— that is, the colonists who took their side — and formed 
some of them into regiments. In the South, the loyalists 
gathered into irregular bands, called " Partisan Rangers." 

99. War in the North (1775-1776). — Among the many 
battles, marches, and sieges of the Revolution, only a few can 
be mentioned in a narrative like this. On June 17, 1775, the 
" patriots," as the friends of the Revolution began to be called, 
built a little fortification near Bunker Hill, from which cannon 
shot could be dropped into Boston. The British after a hard 
fight drove them off, but lost a thousand men, and learned 
for the first time that American militiamen would stand 
against large bodies of regular troops. 

A few days later Washington arrived and took command of 
the army under or near a tree on Cambridge Common — a 
tree which is still standing. While the British were be- 
sieged in Boston by Washington, Benedict Arnold led a little 
army through the Maine woods into Canada. He was not 
able to capture Quebec, and had to retreat. In the spring of 
1776 Washington, by his grit and boldness, compelled the 
British to take to their ships and evacuate Boston. They 



IN THE NORTH AND CENTER 



135 




Old links of the chain stretched across the Hudson River 
below West Point, to prevent British ships from going 
up the river 



never got that city back, though they seized and held Newport 
and other seaports. 

100. War in the Center (1776-1778). — During the next 
two years most of the fighting was on the Hudson River and 
on the Delaware. In spite of every effort by Washington, 
the British captured New York in 1776, and forced him to 

retreat almost to 

Philadelphia. 

Next year a 
great effort was 
made to break the 
American line in 
two, by sending an 
army under Gen- 
eral B urgoy ne 
from Canada 
through Lake 
Champlain to the 
Hudson River, 
while General St. Leger was to attack the Mohawk Valley. 
The British General Howe sailed with an army from New 
York around into Chesapeake Bay, defeated the patriots at 
the Brandywine, and captured Philadelphia. 

General Philip Schuyler defended the northern frontier, till 
Washington sent a force northward under General Gates and 
Benedict Arnold, who was a dashing soldier. St. Leger was 
defeated by General Herkimer at Oriskany, and Burgoyne's 
army, reduced by hard fighting to 5000 men, surrendered at 
Saratoga. The despised rebels had bagged a British army ! 

The following winter (i 777-1 778) was the crisis of the Revo- 
lution. Washington kept a little army together at Valley 
Forge near Philadelphia. Though they had poor huts and were 
short of food and clothing, the men stood by their country, 
and in the spring were ready to meet the enemy again. 

101. French Alliance and Arnold's Treason (1778-1780). — 
From the beginning the Americans expected that France 
would aid the revolting colonies. Agents were sent over to 
Paris to ask help; the French secretly gave them military 



136 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 



supplies and money, and shut their eyes when some gallant 
young French officers, especially Marquis de Lafayette and 
De Kalb, went to America as volunteers. In 1778, after 
hearing of the capture of Burgoyne's army, the French made 
a treaty of alliance, and sent over a fleet under Admiral 

d'Estaing, and an 






army to help the 
Americans. Sev- 
eral Germans also 
came out to joiij 
the army, espe- 
cially that excel- 
lent organizer, von 
Steuben. 

The British fitted 
out stronger fleets 
and transferred the 
war to the South, 
capturing Savan- 
nah and Charles- 
ton, and landing 
an army (1780). 
In 1780 Benedict 
Arnold, who was 
a fine soldier and 
was designed for 
high command in 
the American 
army, found himself deeply in debt, and tried to get out of 
it by selling to the British the post of West Point, which he 
commanded. The plot failed through the chance capture of 
the British agent. Major Andre, who was hanged as a spy, 
Arnold fled to the British and received a generalship and other 
rewards, but West Point was saved. 

102. The American Navy (1775-1781). — As soon as the 
war broke out, the slates began to commission little vessels of 
war. These were gradually replaced by what was called the 
"Continental Navy"; that is, vessels commissioned by Con- 




According to popular notion, Frenchmen were frog-eaters. 
So when Mr. Nathaniel Tracy of Cambridge enter- 
tained Admiral d'Estaing and his officers, he was much 
surprised at the merriment among his guests when each 
found a frog in his plate of soup 



ON THE SEA 



137 



gress as national ships, of which there were eventually 57. 
The little American squadrons never were big enough to fight 
a British fleet, but they made cruises, raided the British port of 
New Providence in the West Indies, and captured many British 
merchant ships. The first officer placed in command of a 
squadron was John Barry, an Irishman. 



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Battle between the Serapis and the Bon Homme Richard 

The naval genius of the war was John Paul Jones, who as 
commander of the ship Ranger landed twice on the coast of 
the British Islands — the only invasion of Great Britain dur- 
ing the war. After the French alliance of 1778 was formed, 
Jones was put in command of a former French merchant ship, 
the Bon Homme Richard, fitted it out as a ship of war, and 
dared to attack and capture a forty-four-gun British frigate — 
the Serapis. This was the most mortifying defeat suffered by 
Great Britain at sea for many years. 

Besides the regular ships of war, privateers (§ 85) were fitted 
out, which sometimes attacked small British ships of war, and 
in the course of the war captured 800 merchant ships. Part of 
the value of these ships and cargoes was always divided among 
the crews as " prize money." Sometimes the sailors made a 



138 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 



rich haul, as in the case of a boy fourteen years old, who re- 
ceived 1700 silver dollars, 20 pounds of ginger and logwood, 20 
pounds of cotton, 30 or 40 gallons of rum, and a ton of sugar. 
The owners of privateers liked to give them fanciful names, 
such as Charming Peggy, Black Joke, King Taming. 

As in previous wars, this method of sea fighting worked both 
ways: privateers sailed from British ports and from New York 
in pursuit of American ships. The vessels of one patriot ship- 
owner, Nathaniel Tracy, captured 120 ships, but he lost nearly 
100 vessels by British captures, and was ruined. Neverthe- 
less, the American privateers kept up their cruises after all the 
ships of war had been driven from the seas, and their ravages 
inclined the British to make peace. 

103. War in the West (1778-1780). — Besides the main 
battles already mentioned, the Revolution abounded in bril- 
liant little fights and captures of vessels and forts. The Six 
Nations of Iroquois Indians made a wrong turn by siding with 
the British. In revenge, General Sullivan ravaged their coun- 
try in 1779, and al- 
most destroyed 
their power. 

When the war 
broke out, most of 
the western settlers 
went back east ; but 
soon another move- 
ment of emigrants 
westward across the 
mountains began. 
In 1778 one of these 
westerners, George Rogers Clark, got a commission from the 
governor of Virginia to raise a force against the British, with 
which he went down the Ohio River. He marched across the 
country and took the former French settlements of Kaskaskia 
and Cahokia (§ 66), not far from St. Louis. Then ho enlisted 
a number of Frenchmen, and marched eastward through a 
flooded country and took Vincennes (now in Indiana), which 
was the capital of the district. Clark was not able to capture 




Route of Clark's expedition 



IN THE WEST AND SOUTH 



139 





Detroit as he had hoped, but 
he held the southern region 
till the end of the war. 

Still farther south, as many 
as 10,000 people must have 
found their way into the Ten- 
nessee and upper Kentucky 
regions, for in 1780 a thou- 
sand men from that region 
crossed the mountains east- 
ward and beat a British force 
at Kings Mountain. This 
was the first aid given by the 
West in the defense of the 
common country. 
104. War in the South and End of the War (1780-1781). — 
In the South the whole countryside was in confusion. Loyal- 
ists under Tarleton and patriots under Marion harried and 
fought each other. In 1780 Lord Cornwallis was put in 
command of a British army which started northward through 
the Carolinas, expecting to wind up the war by occupying all 
the South. He was at first successful, defeating General 
Gates at Camden. General Nathanael Greene was then put 
in command of the American forces in the South, and Corn- 
wallis was glad to withdraw into Virginia. A British fleet was 
sent to bring his army away, but was blocked off the Chesa- 
peake by a more powerful French fleet. Meanwhile a com- 
bined American and French army, under Washington and 



Battle of Kings Mountaiu 




llic Iiisl aiccUu^; uf Wjslmji;liiu aud Lala} cllo 



END OF THE WAR 



141 



Rochambeau, marched swiftly southward, joined forces with 
Lafayette, and trapped CornwalHs at Yorktown. There he 
was obhged to surrender with his 8000 men (1781). 

105. Peace and Independence. — This practically ended the 
fighting and the Revolution, for the news of this second cap- 
ture of a British army caused the royal majority in Parlia- 
ment to dwindle 
away. King 
George was obliged 
to write, "At last 
the fatal day has 
come, which the 
misfortunes of the 
times and the sud- 
den change of senti- 
ments of the House 
of Commons have 
drove me to." 

A new British 
ministry, which 
was opposed to the 
American war, at 
once sent commis- 
sioners to Paris, 
where they negoti- 
ated with the 
American envoys, 
Benjamin Franklin, John i\dams, John Jay, and Henry Lau- 
rens. The resulting treaty (1783) was very favorable to the 
Americans: 

(i) The United States was declared to be a free and inde- 
pendent nation. 

(2) The northern boundary was fixed at the Great Lakes, 
and the western at the Mississippi River, so that the Amer- 
icans received not only George Rogers Clark's conquest, but 
the rest of the Northwest as far as Lake Superior. 

(3) The region south of the Ohio, occupied by western 
settlers, went to the United States, and everything else east of 




North America at the end of the Revolutionary War, 1783 



142 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 

the Mississippi as far south as the parallel of 31°. The United 
States as thus bounded was more than twice as large as the 
thirteen colonies together had been in 1775. 

106. Summary. — This chapter describes the military side 
of the Revolutionary War: its outbreak, the troops, and the 
campaigns by land and sea till the British stopped fighting. 

The first conflict of the war was the battle of Lexington and 
Concord, April 19, 1775. The other colonies, acting through 
the Second Continental Congress, stood by Massachusetts and 
raised a Continental army and navy. The British enlisted their 
own subjects and thousands of Hessians, and had a great navy. 
The Americans depended on a poor system of militia enlisted 
for short terms. Both sides used Indians, and the British en- 
listed loyalists, so that the Revolution was really a civil war. 

The British evacuated Boston in 1776, but captured New 
York and stayed there till the end of the war, and occupied 
Philadelphia for a time. The Americans had the worst of it 
till the capture of Burgoyne's army in 1777 at Saratoga. This 
led to an alliance with France, which from this time helped 
the Americans with money, soldiers, and fleets. Arnold's 
attempt to betray West Point was a failure. The American 
navy was small, but under John Paul Jones did glorious fight- 
ing, and was greatly aided by the privateers and their captures 
of British merchantmen. 

In the West the Iroquois attacked the frontier, and were 
then themselves crushed. George Rogers Clark captured the 
British posts north of the Ohio River and held them for Vir- 
ginia. The British transferred the war to the South, and 
overran the Carolinas and Virginia. Washington, with the 
aid of the French, captured the army of Cornwallis at York- 
town (1781), and that ended the war. The opponents of the 
war in England got control of the government and made a 
favorable treaty at Paris, by which the boundaries of the 
United States were broadened to reach the Mississippi. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. States, V, VI. — Hart, Wall Maps, no. 8. — 
Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 195. — Van Tyne, Am. Rev., 26, 270, 290. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS I43 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 180-184, 188-216. — Fisher, Struggle 
for Am. Indep., I. ch. xxiv, II. ch. iii. — Fiske, Am. Rev., I, II; War of 
Indep., 85-183. — Jenks, When Am. Won Liberty, 216-268. — Sloane, 
French War and Rev., 183-239 passim. — Smith, Wars, 61-69, 75-129. — 
Van Tyne, Am. Rev. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 194-198, 204-214, 
219-231. — Hart, Contemporaries, 11. §§ 170-220; Patriots and Statesmen, 

I. 341-383, II. 52-58, 90-152; Source Book, §§ 57-63; Source Readers, 

II. §§ 52, 68-91. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 43, 47, 86, 97, 152. 

Side Lights and Stories. Barnes, For King or Country. — Coffin, Boys 
of 'y6. — Cooper, Pilot. — Drake, Watch Fires of '/<?. — Gordy, Am. 
Leaders and Heroes, chs. xiv-xvii. — Griffis, Pathfinders of the Rev. 
(Sullivan). — Hawthorne, Grandfather' s Chair, pt. iii, chs. viii-x. — Rev. 
Stories Retold from St. Nicholas. — ScoUard, Ballads of Am,. Bravery, 
3-36. — Seawell, Paul Jones. — Simms, Mellichampe. — Tomlinson, Rev. 
Series. — Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, I. 146-282. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, V, VI. — Mentor, serial nos. 43, 53, 
117. — Wilson, Am. People, II. — Winsor, America, VI. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 97) !• How did the Revolutionary War begin in New England? 
2 (For an essay). The battle of Lexington and Concord. 3. What was 
the Second Continental Congress? 4. How did it organize for war? 

(§ 98) 5- What were the disadvantages of the patriots? 6. How did 
the British raise troops for the war? 7. How did the Americans raise 
troops for the war? 8. What other fighting men were there? 

(§ 99) 9 (For an essay). The battle of Bunker Hill. 10 (For an 
essay). George Washington at the siege of Boston. 11. What was the 
result of the campaigns of 1775-76? 

(§ 100) 12. What were the campaigns of 1777-78? 13 (For an essay). 
The capture of Burgoyne's army. 14 (For an essay). The American 
army at Valley Forge. 

(§ loi) 15. Why did the French ally themselves with the Americans? 
16 (For an essay). An account of Lafayette in America. 17 (For an 
essay). Account of Major Andre and his plot with Benedict Arnold. 

(§ 102) 18. How did the American navy begin? 19. What territory 
was raided by American ships? 20 (For an essay). The naval exploits 
of John Paul Jones. 21. How did the privateers aid in the war? 

(§ 103) 22. What became of the Six Nations? 23 (For an essay). 
An account of George Rogers Clark's invasion of the West. 24. How 
did the westerners serve in the Revolutionary War? 

(§ 104) 25. How was the war carried on in the South? 26 (For an 
essay). Account of the siege and capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 

(§ 105) 27. Why did King George III agree to make peace? 28. What 
were the principal provisions of the peace treaty of 1783? 29. What were 
the boundaries of the United States by that treaty? 



CHAPTER X 
INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNION (1775-1781) 

107. The People at Home. — We think of the Revolution- 
ary War as if it were all fighting, but on the average there 
was only one decisive battle a year. Still every colony and 
every county, town, and village, shared in the hardships and 
sufTering. Most of the men had to be at home, for the war 
could not go on unless food was produced, and unless taxes 
were paid to provide for the pay and clothing of the troops and 
for the materials of war. Yet probably a fourth of the grown 
white men were in the army, at one time or another. 

Everybody was excited about the war. Ministers preached 
about it; children talked about it. Ladies cared for the sick 
and wounded, and some of them went with their husbands to 
the war. Baroness Riedesel, wife of a Hessian general, made 
the campaign of Burgoyne's army with her children, and 
during the l)attle of Saratoga they were obliged to take refuge 
in a cellar among the wounded and dying. She was greatly 
relieved, when, after the surrender of the army, the American 
General Schuyler, as she says, " regaled us with smoked 
tongues, which were excellent, with beefsteaks, potatoes, fresh 
butter, and bread. ... I was easy after many months of 
anxiety." Mrs. Esther Reed collected $300,000 in paper 
money in Philadelphia, and sent it to George Washington, to 
be given to the soldiers. The women bore their part of the 
war; and despite their sorrow for lost relatives and friends, 
they kept up the spirit and courage of the men. A few of 
them even put on uniforms and fought in the ranks. 

Wherever the armies marched, people living along the road 
flocked to see the soldiers moving on horseback or on foot, the 
wounded hobbling along or carried in wagons. Troops were 
often "quartered"; that is, distributed among the houses of 

144 



THE PEOPLE AND THE WAR 1 45 

the towns where they were staying overnight. Here and 
there a young ofificer fell in love with a daughter of the 
household where he was quartered, and later returned to 
marry her. 

108. The Loyalists (1775-1782). — Not all the Americans 
joined heart and soul in the Revolution. John Adams thought 
that at the beginning at least a third of the Americans were at 
heart " Tories," as the loyalists were often called. However 
right and necessary the Revolution was, thousands of good 
people sincerely loved Great Britain and were loyal to King 
George. Some of them believed that the British government 
was the best thing for the colonies. 

The loyalists were harshly put down even in colonies like 
New York and Georgia, where at the beginning they were 
clearly in the majority. The patriots had the advantage of 
knowing each other through the Committees of Correspond- 
ence; and their informal congresses and conventions passed 
acts for arresting the loyalists and seizing their property. 
The General Court of Massachusetts banished 310 heads of 
families, including many of the best educated and most public- 
spirited men in the colony. 

Thousands were thrown into jail; scores were tarred and 
feathered; some were killed outright. In Virginia a man 
named Lynch tied up Tories and whipped them till they prom- 
ised to become patriots, and that method came to be called 
" Lynch law." About 30,000 persons in all were compelled 
to leave their homes, and went to Canada, Nova Scotia, the 
West Indies, or England. Those who remained were not 
allowed to take part in public affairs. 

109. Supporting the War. — The Americans had little ready 
money, and the war cut off their profitable trade with England. 
Yet the country abounded in provisions, and clothing could be 
made out of wool woven on hand looms. Unfortunately the 
roads were bad and it was hard to keep the armies supplied. 
The colonies depended chiefly on France for muskets, pistols, 
swords, cannons, and uniforms. 

The Continental Congress and the states borrowed what 
little money they could from the people, and borrowed more 



146 



INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNION 




TMFypNl TEDiSOL'JNri. 







from the French and Spanish governments. Both Congress 
and the states raised most of their funds by issuing paper 
money. Congress alone put out 250 milHon dollars in Con- 
tinental currency. 

Paper money that has gold or other valuable things behind 
it in the vaults of a bank, like our present federal bank notes, 
is a great convenience. But paper money will surely decline 

in value till it is worth- 
less, if there is no coin 
with which to redeem it. 
During the Revolution 
the states and the Con- 
tinental Congress made 
it a practice to pay 
salaries and other ac- 
counts in paper notes. 
The people who took 
them used them to pay 
dues to their creditors, 
who would receive the 
notes only at a discount. The new holders passed them on 
at a greater discount; and in the end the notes were worth 
nothing, so that a barber in Philadelphia papered his shop 
with Continental money. 

All classes, religions, and races took part in the war. The 
richest northern merchants, such as John Hancock and Robert 
Morris, and the richest southern planters, such as the Ran- 
dolphs of Virginia and the Pinckneys of South Carolina, joined 
in the war. New England Congregationalists, Pennsylvania 
Presbyterians, Maryland Catholics, and Virginia Episcopa- 
lians were all stanch patriots. Germans, Irish, Scotch-Irish, 
French, Dutch, Negroes, and Englishmen stood side by side 
in the ranks. 

110. Change from Colonies to States (1775-1780). — While 
the military revolution was going on, every colony was passing 
through another kind of revolution by making a new govern- 
ment. The governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island were 
chosen by the voters, and they sympathized with the Revolu- 



A Continental paper note 



FROM COLONIES TO STATES 1 47 

tion. Most of the eleven royal governors tried to stop the 
movement. The patriots were too strong for them, and in the 
end the governors had to run away from their own former 
colonies. When the governors were out, the old colonial 
governments simply collapsed. 

The patriots at once set up Committees of Safety in 
towns, counties, and colonies. They arranged for informal 
elections to colonial congresses or conventions; and these 
hastily chosen bodies took on themselves the right to pass 
laws, to lay taxes, to raise soldiers, to suppress loyalists, and 
to send delegates to the Continental Congress. 

For about a year there was still hope that England would 
yield and that the old governments could again be formed. 
Finally the patriot congress of New Hampshire drew up 
(January, 1776) a document describing a new form of govern- 
ment with an elective governor. This was not a colonial 
charter, but a brief constitution for a state. It gave up the 
old loyalty to England. It set up a new kind of government, 
which sprang from the people of New Hampshire. 

This example was followed by all the other colonies, one 
after another. Connecticut and Rhode Island had simply to 
make small changes in their old popular charters. After July, 
1776, all the former colonies called themselves " states," and 
their legislatures or conventions framed a constitution for each 
one. Pennsylvania held a special convention (1776), of which 
Benjamin Franklin was president; it drew up and put in force 
the first constitution of that state. Several groups of people 
in the far West also tried to form little states. Vermont, 
which had been a part of New York, set up a state government 
(1777), but was not admitted to Congress. The last state to 
form a new government was Massachusetts (1780). In that 
state a new way of making a constitution was invented: a 
special convention drew up the document; it was then sub- 
mitted to the direct vote of the people; when they approved 
of the constitution, it went into force. Parts of it are still in 
force. 

111. Spirit of Independence (1775). — The Second Conti- 
nental Congress at first (May, 1775) took the ground that the 



148 INDEPENDEN'CE AND THE UNION 

war was intended only to call the British people to their 
senses; and that the Americans were still loyal to the real 
principles of the British government. Several public men, 
however, especially Patrick Henry of \'irginia and Samuel 
Adams (§ 92), had other notions, and expected to break loose 
from England. 

During 1775 it became a custom to hold patriotic meetings 
in various parts of the country, which passed resolutions urg- 
ing people to stand fast against aggression by the British. 
Among these gatherings was a committee commonly called the 
" Mecklenburg Con\ention," which met at Charlotte, North 
Carolina, in May. 1775. One set of resolutions supposed to be 
passed by this convention was published at this time, and 
another about forty years later. It is still uncertain how far 
the patriots of Mecklenburg County went in urging that the 
colonies withdraw from the British Empire; but there is no 
doubt that they were much aroused and that their action gave 
comfort to the friends of independence. 

112. Independence Adopted (July 4, 1776). — When the 
British in the spring of 1770 prepared a tleet and army to put 
down the Revolution, it was clear that the colonies must either 
submit or break away altogether. In June a committee was 
appointed to draw up a declaration of independence, and the 
task of writing the document was given to Thomas Jefferson, a 
young delegate to Congress from \'irginia. 

On July 4, -1 776, the Declaration was adopted by Congress, 
which was then sitting in the State House of Pennsylvania, 
now called Independence Hall. The signatures, which are 
familiar to American boys and girls, were not all added 
till several weeks later. Nevertheless, July 4, 1776 has been 
looked on as the birthday of the United States. John Adams 
wrote that the Declaration would in later times be celebrated 
" with pomp, shows, games, sports, bells, bonfires, and illumi- 
nations from one end of this continent to the other." 

If this famous document (See Appendix) is read carefully, it 
will be seen to include four principal political ideas: 

(i) Americans are possessed of natural rights: for instance, 
" all men are created equal . . . with certain unalienable 



INDEPENDENCE DECLARED 



149 



Rights (§88), that among these are Life, Liberty, and the 
pursuit of Happiness." — Clearly a denial of those rights would 
be an oppression of the colonists. 

(2) Americans hold a " compact " with the king, under 
which the people have a right to change their government 
when they think it a bad thing for 
them. — That is, they have a right to 
start a revolution. 

(3) The king of Great Britain has 
forfeited his right to govern on account 
of twenty-seven different oppressive 
acts. — That is, there are good reasons 
for a revolution. 

(4) " T h c s e _._ '^^f^^r^hr^A 
United Colonies /'. ''f''^^^/ 
are, and of Right 
ought to be, Free 
and Independent 
States." — That 
is, the colonists 
have revolted, and 
are no longer 
British. 

Because of its 
ringing statement 
of the basic prin- 
ciples of free government, the Declaration of Independence 
is accepted by all Americans and by many people in other 
parts of the world as a great summary of human rights. 

113. Spirit of Union (1775- 1777). — Though the Declara- 
tion of Independence was a great and noble document, that 
part of it which declared the United States to be free and in- 
dependent could come true only if the people and the govern- 
ments of the new states should win in the Revolutionary War. 
For that end they knew that they must all stand together. 
They knew that there must be one army and one navy, one 
commander in chief and one Congress. Then why not one 
government? Realizing this need of union, a committee of 

hart's sch. hist. — 9 




Independence Hall, Philadelphia 



150 INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNION 

Congress, a few days after the Declaration was adopted, re- 
ported the Articles of Confederation. This was a form of 
government intended to govern all the people of the United 
States in a permanent federal union. 

In many ways the colonies had always been one people. 
Nearly all of them practiced the same religion, spoke the same 
language, and were accustomed to much the same laws, trade, 
and customs. They had fought alongside each other in four 
previous wars (§§ 67-71). They had acted together in the 
Albany Congress, the Stamp Act Congress, and the First 
Continental Congress (§§ 70, 90, 92). 

They were used to a government outside their Own bound- 
aries which carried on war for them, made treaties for them, 
and regulated their trade. Then what was to prevent their 
setting up some sort of federal government which would do 
the same things for them, while leaving each state free to 
govern itself in local matters? 

114. Articles of Confederation (1775-1781). — The wise 
Benjamin Franklin had already submitted to Congress a set 
of Articles of Confederation based in part on the old New 
England Confederation of 1643 (§ 36). The committee used 
Franklin's draft, and added many other things. It was soon 
evident that however much the people desired a union, they 
did not feel the need of a strong union. Yet a national con- 
stitution could not be made unless the states should part with 
some of the authority that they would otherwise enjoy. 

So the debates on the Articles of Confederation dragged 
along for many months during 1776 and 1777, while Wash- 
ington's army was defeated at New York, and Congress was 
driven out of Philadelphia. Not till after Burgoyne's army was 
captured (§ 100) did Congress pluck up courage to complete the 
form of union. In November, 1777, it finished framing the 
Articles, and sent them out to the states. Congress could not 
make a constitution; it could only draw up one which should 
go into force when ratified by the thirteen state legislatures. 

Congress had delayed for months. The states delayed for 
years; and till the legislature in everyone of the thirteen states 
voted to put the Articles into effect, they were nothing but a 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION I5I 

piece of paper. The states were jealous of one another, 
especially because seven of them claimed for themselves the 
territory west of the mountains. The country grew tired of 
Congress, and Congress grew tired of itself. Not till 1781 did 
Virginia make an offer to yield her western claims, which in- 
duced the last state, Maryland, to sign the Articles. Thus 
was finally completed the first written constitution of that 
nation which was called the United States of America. 

Then and ever since, critics have found fault with the 
Articles of Confederation because they made Congress too weak 
to take care of national affairs. After all, they provided the 
strongest and best federal government that the world had ever 
known, and their many faults proved to the people the strong 
need of a better government on the same lines. They proved 
to be a school for statesmen. Thomas Jefferson, James 
Madison, and James Monroe, all later Presidents of the United 
States, were active members of the Congress. On the whole, 
the country has reason to be proud of the Articles of Con- 
federation. 

115. What is a Constitution? — The state constitutions, the 
Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation 
are of great importance to us to-day, because they contain 
the principles that we now apply to our present state and 
national governments. Among these great principles are the 
following: 

(i) A written constitution is a " fundamental law " which 
cannot be altered by an ordinary law of a legislature or Con- 
gress. There are now forty-eight suctf constitutions in the 
states of the Union, besides the federal Constitution. 

(2) The old doctrine of " natural rights " or " fundamental 
rights " or " unalienable rights " was claimed again in the 
Declaration of Independence (§ 112), and enlarged and stated 
in detail in the " bills of rights " which were added to the state 
constitutions. They included such statements as the follow- 
ing: " All men are by nature equally free and independent." 
" All elections ought to be free." " The freedom of the press 
is one of the great bulwarks of liberty." " A man hath a 
right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men." 



152 INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNION 

(3) The Americans wanted a popular government, in which 
there should be no king, no nobles, no privileged classes. At 
that time nobody could vote unless he owned land or other 
property, but the idea of political equality soon led to a widen- 
ing of the suffrage. 

116. The Higher Law. — Another idea, which has been 
very important, was that in every state there were two kinds 
of law, a higher and a lower. The higher law was the written 
constitution of the state. The lower law was made up of 
ordinary statutes passed by legislatures and county, city, or 
local governments. Since the higher law was made in a dif- 
ferent way from the ordinary law, and could be changed only 
by a difTerent and more difficult method, there could be no 
such thing as a lower law that disagreed with the higher. 
If a legislature passed a bill, or a governor made an appoint- 
ment, or a court laid down a decision that was contrary to 
the higher law of the constitution, then it was just as if the bill, 
appointment, or decision had not been made at* all. The 
fundamental law must always come first and be higher than 
any other. 

This is not an easy matter to understand; but every school 
child knows that the decision of a school board is higher than 
that of the principal of a school, and that an act of the state 
legislature is higher than a vote of the school board. And 
people often talk about this or that act of the legislature as 
being " unconstitutional." 

Some of the new laws passed nowadays about labor, crimi- 
nals, corporations, trusts, trolley lines, and railroads are held 
unconstitutional because they are considered to be overruled 
by this higher law of the written constitution. 

117. Summary. — - This chapter describes the life of the 
people during the Revolution and the way in which they 
created state governments, declared their independence, and 
made Articles of Confederation which for a time were the 
written constitution of the nation. 

The Revolution was a period of change and excitement all 
through the country. The soldiers, and also the men, women, 
and children of al! races and religions who remained at home, 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 1 53 

shared in the losses and sufferings. Loyalists, who were at 
first about a third of the thinking people, were silenced by 
argument or by violence. This left the patriots in control of 
the situation. They raised supplies for the troops, borrowed 
what money they could, and both Congress and the states put 
out quantities of paper money. Men of all races, classes, and 
religions took part in the war. 

When the royal governors had to fiee, informal colonial 
congresses were set up which made new forms of government 
for the colonies or states (as they were called after July, 1776). 

For a year after the breaking out of war, independence was 
suggested by some local conventions, but the question was 
avoided by Congress. Then, on July 4, 1776, Congress 
adopted the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas 
Jefferson, which declared the former colonies to be " Free and 
Independent States." 

At the same time another committee began to draw up 
Articles of Confederation, which were not adopted by all the 
states till 1781. Though rather a weak form of government 
they contain the idea of the fundamental law or the higher 
law, which is that a constitution should be drawn up more 
thoughtfully and more carefully than other laws, and must 
contain the principles under which other laws can be made. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. States, V, VI. — Van Tyne, Am. Rev., 68, 250, 
278. 

Histories. Channing, Un. States, III. chs. vii, xiv. — Elson, Side 
Lights on Am. Hist., I. ch. i. — Sloane, French War and Rev., 206-218, 
224-237, 370-388. — Van Tyne, Am. Rev., chs. iv-vi, ix, xi, xiv. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 11, 14, 20. — Beard, Readings, §§ 9- 
13. — Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 198-201, 214-219. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, II. §§ 159-169, 184-190, 205-210. — Hill, Liberty Docs., 
chs. xiii, xiv. — James, Readings, §§32-35. — Johnston, Am. Orations, 
I. 24-38. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 45-51. 

Side Lights and Stories. Bruce, Daniel Boone. — Ford, Janice Mere- 
dith. — Kennedy, Horseshoe Robinson. — Mitchell, Hugh Wynne. — 
Ogden, Loyal Little Redcoat. — Price, Lads and Lassies of Other Days, 
85-175. — Thwaites, Daniel Boone. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, V, VI. — Mentor, serial no. 43. — Wilson, 
Am. People, II. — Winsor, America, VI. 



154 INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNION 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 107) I. How did people live during the Revolutionary War? 2. 
What did women do in the war? 3 (For an essay). Account of home 
life somewhere in America during the war. 

(§ 108) 4. Who were the loyalists? 5. How were they treated? 

(§ 109) 6. Where did the army get its supplies during the war? 7. 
How did Congress and the states raise funds? 8. Why was paper money 
disliked? 9. What kind of people took part in the war? 

(§ no) 10. What became of the colonial governments when the Revo- 
lution broke out? 11. What were the Committees of Safety and what 
did they do? 12. What was the first state constitution? 13. How were 
the state constitutions made? 

(§ in) 14. When did the idea of independence first appear? 15. 
What was the Mecklenburg Convention? 

(§ 112) 16. Why did the colonists resolve on independence? 17 (For 
an essay). Account of the writing and adoption of the Declaration of 
Independence. 18. What are the principal statements of the Declara- 
tion of Independence? 

(§ 113) 19- Why did the people of the United States need one govern- 
ment? 20. What made it easy to form a national government? 

(§ 114) 21. Where did people get the idea of Articles of Confederation? 
22. How were the Articles prepared? 23. How were they ratified? 
24. What were their advantages? 

(§ 115) 25. What are the three essentials of American free govern- 
ment? 26. What is a fundamental law? 27. What are natural rights? 
28. What is popular government? 

(§ n6) 29. What is the higher law? 30. What is the difference be- 
tween a constitution and a statute? 31. What happens if a statute is 
not in accordance with a constitution? 



CHAPTER XI 
THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF (1781-1789) 

118. Peace and Happiness. — If ever the American people 
had reason to be happy, it was at the end of the Revolutionary- 
War. They had their independence, their new-made state 
governments, their Union, and a federal constitution the weak- 
ness of which was not yet understood. They could carry on 
their own trade free from the English Navigation Acts (§ 80). 
They had a larger degree of comfort and well-being and per- 
sonal freedom than any other people in the world. They 
were provided with schools and newspapers and books. They 
had complete religious freedom. Their country abounded in 
good land and valuable timber and rich ores. Who could be 
more free and happy? 

119. Business Difficulties (1782-1788). — On the other 
side of the account must be placed the losses of the war. For 
about seven years all direct traffic with England had been cut 
ofif. Hundreds of the vessels that traded with France and 
other countries had been captured by the British. Some parts 
of the country, especially South Carolina and Virginia, had 
been ravaged by armies, and large amounts of property had 
been destroyed. Thousands of slaves had run away. Ordi- 
nary trade and work had been upset by sending so many men 
to serve in the army. Thousands of men whose labor would 
have helped to restore their country were dead or wounded, 
and thousands of loyalists were in exile (§ 108). 

While the war lasted it was hard to collect debts, even from 
people who had means. As soon as it was over, creditors be- 
gan to bring suits; and under the treaty of peace British 
merchants tried to collect about ten million dollars which were 
due them from American merchants when the war broke out. 
The laws of debt at that time were very harsh. Even honest 

155 



156 THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF 

men, who expected to pay but had not the money at hand, 
might be sent to prison and kept there indefinitely. 

Nevertheless the country was really prosperous, as is shown 
by the rapid growth of population and by the settlement of the 
land. People went on steadily building ships, putting up 
houses, clearing woodland, enlarging the towns, and improving 
harbors. Insurance companies flourished, and for the first 
time banks were founded, one each in Boston, New York, and 
Philadelphia. The country seemed poor because immediately 
after the war the merchants bought large quantities of British 
goods and took a long time to pay for them. 

One of the objects of Congress was to secure good trade 
relations with both Europe and the West Indies. It was, 
therefore, a hard blow when England announced (1783) that 
all the trade from the United States to the British colonies 
must be carried in British vessels. This cut off the profitable 
traffic in their own vessels that the colonists enjoyed before 
the Revolution. The British would not give way; their point 
was that if the United States wanted to be independent, it 
must expect to be treated like other nations and be shut out 
by the Acts of Trade from carrying goods to and from the 
remaining British colonies, especially the West Indies. 

120. Debts and Taxes (1782-1788). — One thing that dis- 
turbed the Americans was the need of taxes to pay interest 
on their public debts. The poor workmen and struggling 
farmers felt the burden of such taxes more than any one 
else. To help them out, some of the states passed " Stay and 
Tender " laws, to postpone the payment of private debts. 
Half the states tried to avoid taxes and make money easy by 
floating a second issue of paper money, most of which was 
never redeemed. 

The pressure was so great that riots occurred and threats of 
revolution were made in several parts of the country. Mas- 
sachusetts was a well-to-do and intelligent state, but in 1786 
discontented people came together at the county seats on the 
days when the courts were to sit, and prevented the judges from 
hearing any suits for the collection of debts. Old General 
Artemas Ward, when they tried to shut up his court, said, " I 



BUSINESS AND FINANCE 



157 



will sit as a judge or die as a general." Then Captain Daniel 
Shays got together a force of armed men and tried to break up 
the state government. The whole country was alarmed, and 
the rising, commonly called the " Shays Rebellion," was put 
down with great difficulty by state troops (1787). It looked 
as if the Union might be broken up by these men whom we 
should now call anarchists. 




The United States, 1776-1789, showing state claims to western lands 

121. Western Claims (1775-1802). — The main reason for 
the delay in ratifying the Articles of Confederation (§ 114) 
was that four of the southern states — Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, and Georgia — laid claim to strips of 
territory stretching west from their former boundaries, as far 



158 THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF 

as the Mississippi. North of the Ohio River, Virginia also 
claimed George Rogers Clark's conquest, and everything else 
in the Northwest. This would have allowed one state to 
occupy a third of the whole area of the Union; and it stirred 
up New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut to lay claim 
to parts of the same area. 

The other six states had nothing to claim in the West; and 
therefore their delegates in Congress insisted that the western 
lands belonged to the whole Union and should not be claimed 
by a part of the states. Congress therefore voted (1780) that 
any land that the states might give up should be used to pay 
the national debt, and also that settlers who might go into the 
western country should in the course of time form new states 
which would be admitted to the Union. 

With this understanding, the deadlock was broken, and the 
states with western claims one after another yielded them to 
Congress, in whole or in part. Connecticut kept control of 
the Western Reserve, a strip 120 miles long on the south side 
of Lake Erie, for fourteen years; during which she sold or 
gave away the land there. Virginia kept Kentucky, besides 
issuing grants for a block of " military bounty lands " north of 
the Ohio. North Carolina issued grants for most of the land 
in Tennessee before giving up control of that region. Georgia 
likewise made large grants of western lands before she ac- 
cepted her present boundaries. With these exceptions, the 
western lands were turned over to the federal government, 
and formed the earliest public lands of the United States. 

122. Western Governments (1784-1788). — The Congress 
of the Confederation, wishing to encourage the states to make 
these cessions, and hoping to open up the country to new- 
comers, passed three notable measures: (i) Jefferson's Ordi- 
nance of 1784, which promised -a simple kind of government 
to the western settlers; (2) Grayson's Ordinance of 1785, which 
provided for the surveying of the western lands in townships 
six miles square; (3) the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which 
was a kind of colonial charter. It set up a new Northwest 
Territory, which included the whole region north of the Ohio 
River, from the state of Pennsylvania west to the Mississippi. 



THE WEST 



159 



By this Northwest Ordinance, Congress was to provide a 
temporary government until enough people should arrive to 
elect a territorial legislature with power to pass local laws. 
Part of the Ordinance was a set of Articles of Compact, which 
forbade slavery in the territory, and promised that the people 
who might come into the territory should have liberty, freedom 
of religion, and public education. 

At the same time when this Ordinance was passed, a tract 
of nearly a million acres of land was sold to the Ohio Com- 
pany, which was composed 
principally of Revolution- 
ary ofBcers from New 
England. In 1788 the 
first immigrants under 
this company, headed by 
Rufus Putnam, crossed 
the country from eastern 
Massachusetts to the Ohio 
River, where they built 
the town of Marietta. A 
little later another com- 
pany settled the Symmes 
Purchase, containing the 
town of Cincinnati. Connecticut settlers soon came into 
the Western Reserve. At the same time, southern settlers 
were pouring by thousands across the mountains into Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. Thus the West was preparing to 
claim the promised right to become a part of the union of 
states. 

123. Lessons of the Confederation (1781-1788). — Within 
five years from its organization, the Confederation seemed on 
the point of breaking down. England kept possession of 
Oswego, Niagara, Mackinac, and other posts or forts on the 
American side of the boundary fixed by the treaty of 1783, 
and would make no commercial treaty. Congress could get 
hardly enough money together for the small expenses of the 
national government, including the pay of a few hundred 
soldiers. 




Land purchases and reserves in Ohio, 1800 



l6o THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF 

Another cause of division among the states came through the 
movement to emancipate the slaves. Betw^een 1777 and 1787 
laws were passed in the following states and territories by 
which the slaves were to be set free immediately, or after a 
few years: (a) the four New England states; (b) Vermont 
(not yet admitted to the Union); (c) Pennsylvania; (d) the 
Northwest Territory (§ 122). Not long before the Revolution 
two surveyors, named Mason and Dixon, surv^eyed and marked 
the southern boundary of Pennsylvania (map, page 66). After 
the slaves were emancipated in the rest of the northern states, 
that line became the division between the free and the slave- 
holding states. The area lying south of it was later in sport 
called " Dixie," or " Dixie's Land." 

Because of troubles like the Shays Rebellion (§ 120), Wash- 
ington thought the Union was in danger, and wrote to his 
friends that the Articles of Confederation were a " rope of 
sand." " If no change comes about," said he, " our downfall 
is as plain as A B C." In vain did Congress call upon the 
states to give it power to raise money by taxing imported 
goods. Such an amendment to the Articles recjuired unani- 
mous consent, and nothing would induce all thirteen of the 
states to agree to anything. Therefore Congress, reluctantly 
following the suggestion made by a meeting called the "Annap- 
olis Convention " (1786), asked the states to send delegates 
to a constitutional convention to be held in Philadelphia in 
1787. 

124. Sessions of the Constitutional Convention (1787). — 
To get the convention together was a hard task. Eleven state 
legislatures soon appointed their delegates; but New Hamp- 
shire acted slowly, and her delegates did not appear until the 
convention was half over. Rhode Island sent nobody at all. 
Some of the delegates did not attend; others, including two 
of the three delegates from New York, lost their tempers and 
went home after a few weeks. Out of the fifty-five differ- 
ent men who actually sat in the convention, only thirty-nine 
members, representing twelve states, were willing at the end 
to affix their signatures to the document drawn up by the 
convention. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 



l6l 



The convention met May 25, 1787. George Washington, 
delegate from Virginia, was at once made president. Though 
he said Httle during the sessions, his presence gave confidence 




The Constitutional Convention in session, with Washington as presiding oflScer 

to the American people. The convention sat privately with- 
out spectators or reporters; for this reason some recent writers 
have said that it was ashamed to state its principles in public. 
In fact we know very nearly what went on, because James 
Madison and several other members took notes which have 
since been printed. 

The character of its leaders proves that the convention was 
an able and upright body. Eight of the members had been 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Roger 
Sherman of Connecticut and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania. 
Benjamin Franklin was a member, though too old to make set 
speeches. Alexander Hamilton of New York was one of the 
jnost brilliant men in the convention ; he would have liked a 



1 62 THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF 

more centralized national constitution than the one that was 
adopted. The strongest force in the convention was the Vir- 
ginia delegation, and in that delegation the most active man 
was James Madison. He prepared beforehand a sort of sketch 
called the "Virginia Plan," which was the groundwork of the 
Constitution as finally adopted. 

125. Compromises of the Convention (1787). — Congress 
expected that the old Articles would be patched up; but the 
convention began immediately to construct a new sort of con- 
stitution. Yet how could any document be made to suit at 
the same time small states and large states? the trading and 
the farming communities? the slaveholders and the non- 
slaveholders? Three times the convention was in a deadlock; 
and every time an agreement was reached by each side's yield- 
ing something, until a compromise was reached: 

(i) The small states wanted what they had had in the Con- 
federation, an equal vote with the large states. By the 
Connecticut Compromise they were given an equal vote in 
the new Senate of the United States; but all the states were 
to send members to a new House of Representatives in propor- 
tion to their population. 

(2) The northern ship-building and ship-owning states 
wanted the future government to have the power to make 
laws in aid of American shipping. The planting states, which 
were mostly southern and built very few ships, strongly ob- 
jected; but finally they gave way on condition that the slave 
trade should not be prohibited for twenty years. 

(3) Great difficulty arose on the question of the relation of 
the new government to slavery. Washington, Madison, and 
other Virginians hoped that their state would soon give up the 
system of slavery, but nobody proposed in the convention 
that the federal government should prohibit slavery. The 
trouble arose over the question whether slaves should be 
counted as people. The South insisted that the slaves, al- 
though they could not vote, ought to be counted as popula- 
tion when the members of the House were assigned to the 
states. Northern men objected to this but insisted that they 
should be counted in apportioning taxes to the states, This 



DETAILS OF THE CONSTITUTION 1 63 

dispute was settled by a compromise under which it was agreed 
that both for taxes and in making up the basis for the mem- 
bers of the lower house, slaves should be counted at the " fed- 
eral ratio "; namely, at three fifths of their real number. 

126. Origin of the Constitution. — Some people have 
thought that the " Fathers of the Constitution," who drew it 
up, simply used their own judgment and knowledge of previous 
federal governments, choosing what would be best. The 
history of previous federations was of little service, for those 
in Europe were then dying out. What the Fathers of the 
Constitution really did was to draw on their own personal 
experience. Hardly anything can be found in the Constitu- 
tion which had not already been tried in the colonies, the 
states, or the Confederation. The members of the conven- 
tion proposed and voted for things that they had seen work 
well at home. 

That is why the Constitution has lasted for many years. 
It is made up of ideas that had already actually worked, put 
together by wise men who had the sense to see that if they 
wanted a government to live, they must give it plenty of 
power. 

127. Form of the Constitution (1787). — After the conven- 
tion settled the difficult points, a committee was appointed to 
write out the document. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania 
is supposed to have furnished the clear language for which it is 
remarkable. Without going into details, the following prin- 
ciples of the Constitution should be noticed: 

(i) The new document was a fundamental law, much fuller, 
clearer, and stronger than the Articles of Confederation. 
It provided a much better machinery of government in its 
Congress of two houses, its independent President, and its 
United States courts. 

(2) The Constitution at first lacked a bill of rights, but that 
was supplied by ten amendments adopted soon after it went 
into eff"ect. 

(3) The Constitution furnished a national popular govern- 
ment. From the first, the members of the lower house of 
Congress came into ofifice through the direct choice of the 



1 64 THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF 

voters. The Senators were (until 1913) elected by the state 
legislatures. The President was chosen by electors who were 
elected either by the legislatures or by the people; but after 
some years the latter mode of election was adopted in all the 
states. 

(4) The Constitution declared that it was the " supreme 
law of the land "; that is, a higher law, above state laws or 
constitutions, and also above all acts of Congress which did 
not agree with it. 

(5) The place of the states in the Union was much more 
clearly stated than in the old Articles, and the whole frame- 
work of the government was so arranged as to give the new 
federal government a chance to do its work without interfer- 
ing with the states. 

128. Ratification of the Constitution (1787-1790). — The 
members of the convention never thought that they could put 
their work into effect themselves; they simply drew it up for 
the states to act upon. On September 17, 1787, they sent it 
out, wisely demanding that a special convention in each state 
meet for the purpose of considering and ratifying the proposed 
document. Even then the hard work of the convention came 
near failing, because so many states were inclined to hold back. 
Anybody could see that if the new Constitution should go 
through, the states were bound to be less powerful than before, 
and the Union more powerful. 

The best argument in favor of a new Constitution was, that 
it was the only thing that would make the Union strong enough 
to be permanent. A back-country farmer member of one of 
the conventions discussed the argument in favor of the Con- 
stitution thus: " I don't think the worse of the Constitution, 
because lawyers and men of learning and moneyed men are fond 
of it. I don't suspect that they want to get into Congress and 
abuse their power. . . . Now is the time to reap the fruit 
of our labor, and if we don't do it now I am afraid we shall 
never have another opportunity." 

The ratification by nine states was necessary for the estab- 
lishment of the Constitution. In eight states (Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Maryland, 



THE CONSTITUTION RATIFIED 1 65 

South Carolina, New Hampshire) this ratification was easy. 
There was a hard struggle in the three large states of Massa- 
chusetts, Virginia, and New York; and no union could expect 
to succeed from which any one of these was left out. The 
very fear of failure carried the Constitution through. By 
narrow majorities, in the teeth of opposition, the Constitution 
was ratified in those three states; so that eleven of the thirteen 
states at once came under what people called "The New Roof." 
North Carolina and Rhode Island followed in 1789 and 1790. 

While the state conventions were being held, the argument 
was brought against the Constitution that its friends wanted 
to set up a centralized government. They replied that on the 
contrary they were Federalists in favor of a federal form of 
government. Madison, Hamilton, and others joined in a 
series of articles, called The Federalist, in a New York news- 
paper, defending the Constitution. The opponents then took 
the name of Anti-Federalists, as the best that they could find. 

129. Summary. — The main subject of this chapter is the 
weakness of the Confederation, and the work of the federal con- 
vention which was called to make the new Constitution, in 
order to avoid the mistakes of the old one. 

After the Revolutionary War, the American people seemed 
ready for peace, happiness, and profit, but the war had caused 
many losses and left behind it many heavy burdens of public 
and private debt. Still, the country was doing well, even 
though Great Britain did not grant favorable conditions of 
trade. 

Seven of the thirteen states laid claim to parts of the terri- 
tory west of the mountains, but cessions to Congress wiped 
out nearly all these rival claims. Then Congress, by the 
Northwest Ordinance (1787), provided the first actual terri- 
torial government. Emigrants from the East at once poured 
into the Northwest Territory, as they were already pouring 
into Kentucky and Tennessee. 

The Confederation was hampered by the fact that the 
British still held some of the northern posts, and by the fact 
that the states were divided in sentiment over slavery. Some 
of the states set the slaves free. Congress could not raise 

hart's SCH. hist. — 10 



1 66 THE OLD ROOF AND THE NEW ROOF 

money enough for national needs, and public sentiment de- 
manded a constitutional convention. 

The convention met in 1787 and was made up of the ablest 
men in the country. They steered the assembly through its 
difficulties by suggesting compromises that could be accepted 
by both sides. They founded the new Constitution on their 
experience in colonies, states, and the Confederation. They 
made the Constitution a fundamental law, protecting the rights 
of man, including popular government, and providing a" higher 
law " than the acts of Congress or of the states. 

To get the necessary ratification of nine states was difficult. 
Some people thought the Constitution gave too much power 
to a centralized government; others wanted it because it would 
preserve the rights of the minority. It was soon ratified by 
eleven states and thus became the Constitution of the nation. 

REFERENCES 

Maps, Aver>', Un. States, VI. — Hart, Epoch Maps, nos. 6, 8; Wall 
Maps. — McLaughlin, Confed. and Constitution. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 
196. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, chs. x, xi. — Elson, Side Lights, L 
ch. ii. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., chs. ii, iii. — McLaughlin, Confed. 
and Constitution, ch. iii. — Walker, Making of the Nation, 1-63. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 8, 22, 28, 32. — Beard, Readings, 
§§ 14-21. — Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 233-245, 267-283. — 
Harding, Select Orations, nos. 6-9. — Hart, Contemporaries, HL §§37- 
75; Patriots and Statesmen, H. 153-361; Source Book, §§64-70. — Hill, 
Liberty Docs., chs. xv-xvii. — James, Readings, §§36-38. — Old South 
Leaflets, nos. i, 12, 13, 15, 16, 40, 99, 127, 186, 197. 

Side Lights and Stories. Adams, Familiar Letters. — Bellamy, Duke 
of Stockbridge (Shays). — Bird, Nick of the Woods (Ky.). — Ford, True 
George Washington. — Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, I. 291, 295. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, Vl. — Mentor, serial no. 75. — Sparks, 
Expansion of Am. People. — Wilson, Am. People, II. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 118) I. What was there to make the American people happy after 
the Revolution? 

(§ 119) 2. What property losses were caused by the Revolution? 3. 
Why was there trouble about debts? 4. How do we know that the 
country was prosperous? 5. How did England treat American trade to 
British colonies? 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 1 67 

(§ 120) 6. What were the "Stay and Tender" laws? 7. What did 
people do to relieve themselves from distress? 8. What was the Shays 
Rebellion? 

(§121)9. What were the western state claims? 10. What did Congress 
promise with regard to the western lands? 11. How were the state claims 
settled? 

(§ 122) 12. How did Congress organize the western territories? 13. 
What was the Northwest Ordinance? 14. How did people prepare to 
occupy the West? 15 (For an essay). Account of the settlement by 
the Ohio Company. 

(§ 123) 16. Why did the Confederation come near breaking down? 
17. How did the abolition of slavery begin? 18. What was Mason and 
Dixon's line? 19. What did Washington think of the Confederation? 
20. What was the Annapolis Convention? 

(§ 124) 21. How was the Constitutional Convention formed? 22. How 
did it carry on its business? 23. What sort of men were members? 
24 (For an essay). An account of life inside the convention. 

(§ 125) 25. What were the three great compromises of the convention? 
26. What was the compromise about the two houses of Congress? 27. 
What was the compromise about shipping? 28. What was the compromise 
about slavery? 

(§ 126) 29. Where did the framers of the Constitution find their ideas? 

(§ 127) 30. What are the most important principles of the Constitution? 

(§ 128) 31. How was the Constitution ratified? 32. Why was it 
ratified? 33. Who were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists? 34 
(For an essay). Account of the proceedings in a ratifying convention. 



CHAPTER XII 
HOW PEOPLE LIVED A CENTURY AGO (1790-1820) 

130. Numbers and Races. — The first federal census, taken 
in 1790, showed a total number reported of 3,930,000 civilized 
people. Of these, about a fifth (760,000) were negroes. In 
addition about 80,000 Indians were known to live east of the 
Mississippi. 

Only about three per cent of the people lived in towns, the 
largest of w^hich were the seaports of Philadelphia with 42,000 
people, New York with 33,000, Boston with 18,000, Charles- 
ton with 16,000, and Baltimore with 14,000. All these places 
were still hardly better than big, overgrown villages, badly 
paved, lighted, and policed. About half the Americans lived 
in the North and about half lived south of Mason and Dixon's 
line (§ 123). 

The only way to find what races composed the white popu- 
lation is to examine the family names; and they show that 
about five sixths were descended from English ancestors; one 
twelfth were Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and Irish, most of whom 
spoke English; about a twentieth were Germans; and about 
a fiftieth were Dutch. The records also include a few French 
and Spanish names and a few hundred Jewish names. Most 
of the Scotch-Irish lived in the four states of Pennsylvania, 
Virginia, and the two Carolinas. Pennsylvania was the only 
state in which the non-English clement was as large in propor- 
tion as it is to-day. 

The census brought out many droll family names, such 
as Toughman, Petty fool, Goodfellow, Fryover, Moonshine, 
Spitznoggle, and Witchw^igon. Some of the combinations of 
names are very amusing, such as Sarah Simpers, William Sor- 
rows, River Jordan, Jemima Crysick, History Gott, Noble 
Gun, Sillah Jester, Joseph Came, and Chrysty Forgot. 

168 



RACES AND CHARACTER 



169 




A picture from The Looking Class for the Mind, a child's 
book, published about 1780. This shows both the 
simple and the elaborate dress of little girls 



Families were usually larger than nowadays. On the aver- 
age there were three children to every white family, as against 
an average of one and a half to-day. Out of 560,000 
families, perhaps 60,000 held slaves, mostly in the South; 
this number includes 

a few negro families |^-^:=>*-*>>^'^^^- '""'^'^^^ .r"5TV, 
that owned negroes. 

131. American 
Character. — Al- 
though the Americans 
had gained their in- 
dependence in govern- 
ment, they were still 
under English leader- 
ship in their trade, 
literature, and re- 
ligion. They liked 
English goods and 
English ways of doing business, and bought most of their 
imports from Great Britain. They read English books and 
magazines. A few writers tried to follow the English fash- 
ions in literary style, set at that time by men like Dr. Samuel 
Johnson of London, and many of the early newspaper men 
were English. It was easier to follow the lead of the old 
country in such matters than to invent new methods on 
American soil. 

Americans at that time were In favor of the equality of all 
people, in theory; but in most of the states they recognized 
the social superiority of certain families of wealth and social 
prestige. Examples of such families were the Rutledges of 
South Carolina, the Carters of Virginia, the Clintons of New 
York, the Huntingtons of Connecticut, and the Quincys of 
Massachusetts. Men from such families were more likely to 
be elected to office than any others. 

The plain farmers, workmen, and sailors were then often 
called " the lower classes" ; but they were far above the ordinary 
workmen and farmers of the time in England and Germany. 
They lived better, and any American family that was sober 



170 



HOW PEOPLE LIVED A CENTURY AGO 



and hard-working could open up new land and in time own a 
good farm. More of the people could read and write than in 
England. As Benjamin Franklin put it, " Persons of moder- 
ate fortune and capital, who having a number of children to 

provide for, are desirous of 
bringing them up in indus- 
try, and to secure estates 
for their posterity, have 
opportunity for doing it 
in America, which Europe 
does not afford." 

Such sturdy and inde- 
pendent people were ready 
to move from place to place, 
and settle on the frontier. 
Many such settlers liked the 
rude life so well that as fast 
as neighbors came near 
them, they started west- 
ward again. In the older 
and newer regions people 
relied on themselves and 
governed themselves, in a 
way little known in the Old 
World. 

132. Country Life. — Since nine tenths of all the people lived 
on farms and plantations, country life is typical of that time, 
(i) Country gentlemen, such as George Washington, built 
handsome houses, and furnished them with beautiful ma- 
hogany, with silver, with pictures and a library; and they had 
servants or slaves to wait on them. Thomas Jefferson, 
also, was a gentleman farmer, who liked to invent new 
plows and tried to improve the tillage of the land. Such 
people visited back and forth with their friends, and held 
races and balls; and the young folks frolicked about much as 
young people do nowadays. 

(2) The smaller landowning planters, of whom there were 
a few in Rhode Island, the Hudson Valley, and Pennsylvania, 




Emily Marshall (1807-1836). Such was the 
fame of this Boston beauty, that the entire 
audience arose when she entered the theater 
and crowds gathered to admire wherever she 
appeared 



LIFE AND LABOR 



171 




and thousands in the South, were not so much farmers as 
overseers. Most of their hfe was spent in laying out work for 
their slaves, whether men, women, or half-grown children, and 
in seeing that they did their tasks. 

(3) Quite another kind of farmer was the man who followed 
the plow, and with his children did the hard work of the 
farm — clearing the land, 
burning piles of brush, 
milking, caring for the 
cattle, weeding and reap- 
ing the crops, husking 
the corn, and threshing 
the grain. Most such 
farmers, north and 
south, owned their own 
land, and few of them 
could afiford to hire farm 
laborers. Few read 
newspapers or books or 
made visits to any place 
larger than a county seat. Few saw visitors, and they never 
dreamed of telephones or trolley cars or automobiles. The 
chief events for man, woman, and child were Sunday services, 
election days, and training days, when the militia was drilled. 

In the North, where there were plenty of cattle, fresh and 
salt beef was abundant. In the South game and poultry 
formed a part of the diet; but the principal meat was bacon, 
ham, and salt pork; for pigs ran half wild in the woods and 
the roads, until ready to become food. 

133. Labor. — A few skilled laborers, such as saddle and 
harness makers, blacksmiths, carpenters, wheelwrights and 
wagonwrights, masons and plasterers, were employed in local 
work. Many skilled men were employed as shipbuilders 
and sailors. The old-fashioned indentured servants and re- 
demptioners (§ 'j']) had almost disappeared, and in the South 
many of the skilled hands were negroes. 

The usual way of learning a trade was by apprenticeship. 
By this system a boy would be turned over to a master for a 



Boys played marbles in much the same way that 
boys of to-day play the game 



172 



HOW PEOPLE LR'ED A CENTURY AGO 



3 Battledore and Shuttlecock 



term of about seven years. He lived usually in the house of 
the master, who was expected to clothe him and teach him his 
trade. Many children, both boys and girls, whose parents 
were dead or could not support them, were " bound out," on 
about the same conditions, to farmers or townspeople. 

Slave labor was still widely used. In 1790, 40,000 slaves 
were held in the northern states and 660,000 in the southern 
states. In neither section at that time was slaver>^ profitable, 

for it cost about as much 
to feed and clothe a slave 
as could be made out of 
his labor. 

About 60,000 of the 
negroes were free; some 
because they had fought 
for their country in the 
Revolution (§ 98). When 
free, the\- could acquire 
property, and in several 
states could vote, just as 
in colonial times (§ 79). 
Some southern statesmen 
looked forward to the free- 
ing of all the negroes. 
Jefferson, himself a slave- 
holder, wrote on slavery 
in his Notes on Virginia: 
" I tremble for my country 
when I reflect that God 
is just; that his justice 
cannot sleep forever." Yet there is reason to believe that 
the negroes were at that time better treated than later, and 
that those who becaine free had a better chance of doing 
well for themselves. 

In the North, except in Pennsylvania, it was uncommon for 
any women except negroes to work in the fields; though a 
traveler who passed through VVethersfield, Connecticut, re- 
lates that he saw two little girls hoeing onions, while a boy 




4. Thread the Needle 



An illustration from Youthful Sports, showing 
little girls at play 



CHURCHES 173 

of ten was plowing with a yoke of oxen. He adds jokingly, 
" Onions are its staple, and habits of indolence are said to 
obtain among the men." 

134. Churches. — The life of our forefathers was not all 
work. They were interested in religion and in the education of 
their children. Just at the time when the people of the United 
States were uniting in a strong political union, the members 
of different religious bodies (§ 55) were moved to organize into 
national churches. The result was that most of the three 
thousand congregations scattered through the land were soon 
gathered into five or six great organized churches, and about 
twenty smaller ones. The largest of these bodies were the 
following: 

(i) The English, or Episcopal, Church was no longer 
supported by public taxation anywhere. In 1783 Samuel 
Seabury was informally elected Bishop for Connecticut, and 
next year the choice was accepted in England. A general con- 
vention of the church was then organized which adopted the 
name of " The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America." 

(2) The English, Scotch, and Irish Catholics in the United 
States were now numerous enough to need a bishop. On the 
request of the American priests, one of the Carroll family of 
Maryland was designated by the Pope as Bishop of Baltimore, 
and began his work in 1790. 

(3) The Baptists continued their system of single churches, 
each choosing its own minister, but they formed a " general 
committee." Several other national Baptist churches came 
forward about this time, such as the Freewill Baptists, and 
Seventh-day Baptists. 

(4) The Congregational Church kept up its stiff old system 
of plain meetinghouses without fires, so that ministers some- 
times preached in overcoat and mittens. They formed no 
general organization. In several New England states taxes 
were till many years later laid on the public at large for the 
support of the Congregational ministers and churches. 

(5) The Methodists also formed a national church. John 
Wesley, head of the church in England, designated Thomas 



174 



HOW PEOPLE LIVED A CENTURY AGO 



Coke to be " superintendent." Coke and Francis Asbury were 
then (1784) elected by the Methodist ministers as the first 
bishops of their church. They organized a " national con- 
ference " which was a sort of federal government for their 
whole church. 

(6) The Presbyterian Church in 1789 formed a "general 
assembly " which has since been held at intervals of about three 
years. 

(7) Several new churches were founded. The Campbellites, 
often called Disciples, or Christians, came out from the Pres- 
byterians and Baptists. The Univcrsalist Church held its 

first general convention in 1785. 
^ Soon after 1800 the Unitarians 

- ] split ofT from the Congrega- 

^ tionalists in New England. 
/ ''^^^^ One of the interesting churches 
of the time was that of the 
Shakers, or Shaking Quakers, 
so called because they made a 
solemn dance a part of their 
services. They lived in com- 
munities, the men and women 
in separate houses, for they 
never married; and they 

An old stone schoolhouse in Raritan, N. J., adopted and brought Up homc- 
built in hexagonal shape. The earUest JeSS children. A fcW of their 
schools were usually made of logs , mi • 

Villages are still in existence. 
The Germans in Pennsylvania and the neighboring states (§ 55) 
were for the most part already gathered into Lutheran, Dun- 
kard, or Mennonite bodies. 

135. Schools. — Soon after the Revolution several great 
changes took place in the schooling of the children: (i) The 
common schools in New England were opened to girls, and that 
practice spread slowly through the country. (2) The employ- 
ment of young women as teachers of mixed classes of boys and 
girls began about this time. (3) As the states of Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois came into the Union they set up public common 
schools on the model of those in the East. 




SCHOOLS AND LITERATURE 



175 




An early New England academy, in Leicester, Massachusetts 

New York hung back from this system of public schools 
until about 1812, Pennsylvania till 1834, and most of the 
southern states much longer. It took time to get accustomed 
to the idea that the education of children, both boys and girls, 
benefited the whole people; and that every taxpayer, whether 
he had children or not, ought to support the schools exactly 
as he supported the roadmakers and the militia. For many 
years tuition was charged by the public schools to those who 
could afford to pay. 

A new type of school, called the " academy," sprang up just 
before the Revolution and spread rapidly through the country. 
This was a combination of what we call grammar grades and 
high school, using buildings put up by private gifts, and charg- 
ing fees. The teachers of such schools often spent a lifetime in 
them and became a great power among the young people. 

136. Literature. — ^ From the Revolution to 1815 was a 
dry time for American writing, except for endless discussions 
of forms of government. Among the so-called poets was Joel 
Barlow, who wrote a long rambling poem called Vision of 
Columbus, in which he makes the explorer prophesy that there 
will be a Panama Canal. Almost the only humorous writer was 
JohnTrumbull, who wrote a good-natured satire called M' Fingal 
in which he pokes fun at the New England town meetings. 

Americans read the great English writers, such as Milton, 



176 HOW PEOPLE LIVED A CENTURY AGO 

Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and 
Oliver Goldsmith, and the novels of Fanny Burney, which 
came out about this time; but the English looked down upon 
American writers. One of them wrote, " The mass of the 
North Americans are too proud to learn and too ignorant to 
teach, and having established themselves by acts of Congress 
as the most enlightened people of the world, they bid fair to 
retain their barbarism from mere regard to consistency." 
Not till about 1820 did James Fenimore Cooper, Washington 
Irving, and William Cullen Bryant begin the glorious period 
of American literature. 

137. Summary. — This chapter covers the same kind of 
topics as Chapter V on Colonial Life. It is an account of 
the people, their character, life, labor, religion, and educa- 
tion during the thirty years after the adoption of the new 
Constitution. 

Americans a hundred years ago were the same sort of people 
as Americans nowadays, except that they were more scattered, 
and most of them lived in the country or in little villages. Of 
the four million people in 1790, about one fifth were negroes. 
Of the whites about five sixths were of English descent, but 
there were many Germans and Scotch-Irish. 

The Americans read English books and were much affected 
by English habits. They paid special deference to certain 
wealthy and distinguished families, but it was a magnificent 
country for the wide-awake and industrious plain people who 
could take care of themselves and who settled the frontier. 
The country gentleman lived handsomely, and the slave- 
holding planters had a stirring outdoor life. Most of the 
white people were farmers working their own land. The 
women did housework, but rarely worked in the fields. There 
were skilled laborers for building and for the hand trades, and 
boys were apprenticed to learn such trades. The negroesi 
were mostly slaves, but it was supposed that they would soon 
be set free. 

Each of the great churches, besides some small ones, tried 
to bring together all its members throughout the nation into 
one organization. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 1 77 

The public schools were opened to girls and spread into the 
West, and academies sprang up throughout the country. For 
literature, the main dependence was on English writings, but 
there were a few American poets and many political writers. 

REFERENCES 

Histories. Bassett, Federalist System, chs. x-xiii. — Bogart, Econ. Hist., 
chs. X, xi. — Channing, Un. States, II. ch. xviii. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., 
ch. i. — MacDonald, From Jefferson to Lincoln, ch. i. — Scudder, Men and 
Manners in Am. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, ch. xv. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 246-259. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, III. §§ 10-30; Source Book, §§ 88, 89; Source Readers, 
III. passim. — James, Readings, §§39-44, 62, 63. — Old South Leaflets, 
nos. 65, 76, 126, 134, 136, 196, 198. 

Side Lights and Stories. Barr, Trinity Bells (N. Y.). — Clarke, In Old 
Quinnebasset. — Fordham, Personal Narrative. — Kellogg, Unseen Hand 
(Western Pa.). — Kennedy, Swallow Barn (Va.). — Stowe, Minister's 
Wooing (New Eng.). 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, V-VII. — Mentor, serial nos. 77, 99, 106, 
109. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People. — Wilson, Am. People, III. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 130) I. How many people lived in the United States in 1790? 2. 
What were the principal towns? 3. What races were represented? 4. 
How many negroes and slaves were there? 

(§ 131) 5- How far did Americans keep up connection with Great 
Britain after 1790? 6. What were the distinctions of classes? 7. Why 
was the United States a good place for plain people? 

(§ 132) 8. How did people live on farms and plantations? 9 (For an 
essay). Account of a visit to Washington at Mount Vernon. 10 (For an 
essay). Account of life on a slaveholding plantation. 11 (For an essay). 
Account of life on a farm. 

(§ 133) 12. What kind of skilled laborers could be found? 13. What 
was apprenticeship? 14. How were the negroes treated about 1790? 

(§ 134) 15. What were the principal national churches about 1790? 16. 
How were the Episcopal and Catholic churches organized? 17. How 
were the Baptist and Congregational churches organized? 18. How 
were the Methodist and Presbyterian churches organized? 19. Mention 
other national churches. 20 (For an essay). The Shakers. 

(§ 135) 21. What changes came about in schools after the Revolution? 
22 (For an essay). Why is it right that a property owner who has no 
children should pay school taxes? 23. What was the academy? 

(§ 136) 24. Who were the principal American writers after the Revolu- 
tion? 25. What English writers were read by the colonists? 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE FEDERALISTS IN POWER (1789-1801) 

138. The New Government Set on Foot (1789). — When 
it was announced that eleven states had ratified the Constitu- 
tion, the next step was to put the new government into opera- 
tion. This was done early in 1789, by the election of a 
President, Senators, and members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. As everybody expected, George Washington of 
Virginia received the vote of every elector for President. John 
Adams, a New England man, was elected Vice President, 
On April 6, 1789, enough members appeared in the city of 
New York to organize the House and Senate, and Frederick 
Muhlenberg from Pennsylvania was chosen to be the first 
Speaker of the House. 

Washington, as he passed through the country on his way 
to the seat of government, was everywhere received with 
triumphal arches and acclaim. On April 30, 1789, he was 
inaugurated in the temporary capitol. Federal Hall on Wall 
Street. Wearing a sword and a brown suit with gold buttons 
bearing eagles, he made a brief speech. He believed in a 
strong government, and the people all believed in him. In 
the new Congress sat several men (including Madison) who 
had been members of the Congress of the Confederation, and 
several who had sat in the Constitutional Convention. They 
meant to make the new Constitution work; and the Anti- 
Federalists (§ 128) had the good sense and patriotism to leave 
the government in the hands of those who believed in it. 

139. The President's Cabinet (1789-1792). — The new 
Congress and President now had to face the problem of carry- 
ing out the general rules and principles of the Constitution in 
detail; for when the old Confederation ceased, everything 
had to be made over. 

178 



ORGANIZING THE GOVERNMENT 1 79 

One of the first tasks was to create aids for the President in 
carrying out his duties of executing and applying the laws. 
Congress decided to make three "departments": a State 
Department in charge of foreign affairs, a Treasury Depart- 
ment in charge of finances, and a War Department in charge 
of military and naval affairs. An Attorney-General (not then 
head of a department) gave legal advice to the President. 
He and the three heads of departments, besides carrying on 
the government business, were the special friends and advisers 
of the President. 

Washington selected four men to fill the new places, as fol- 
lows: Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, author of the 
Declaration of Independence; Secretary of the Treasury, 
Alexander Hamilton, of New York, a brilliant lawyer who 
had been a soldier under Washington, and a member of the 
Constitutional Convention (§ 124); Secretary of War, Henry 
Knox, of Massachusetts, a Revolutionary general; Attorney- 
General, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, a distinguished 
lawyer. 

The next step was the formation of the Cabinet, which came 
into being when Washington invited the three secretaries and 
the Attorney-General from time to time to sit with him and 
talk things over. This Cabinet meeting has been continued 
by every President since that time, while the departments 
have increased from three to ten. 

140. Manning the Ship of State. — Next after the executive 
came the judiciary department; that is, the federal courts 
which were to decide cases and explain the laws. The Presi- 
dent appointed the new judges, and made John Jay of New 
York first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 

As Congress created new ofhces, numerous other federal 
officers had to be appointed, such as postmasters, collectors 
of customs, land surveyors, and military officers. Washing- 
ton knew hundreds of men throughout the country, and 
appointed many former soldiers. He also took advice from 
the Senators and members of the House and from the heads of 
departments, and he was bombarded with letters from ap- 
plicants. For instance, a mother asked for an office for " My 



l80 THE FEDERALISTS IN POWER 

second son Charles, aged twenty-one years, a youth of spirit, 
sobriety, and honesty, writes a legible hand, a good account- 
ant, qualified for a clerk of an office — or in the military 
line." 

141. Federal Debts and Taxes (1789-1792). — Even be- 
fore the inauguration of the President, Congress had begun to 
pass federal laws. Those who had lent money to the states 
or to Congress could not get their money, and so United 
States bonds could be bought at about a quarter of their face 
value. The first thing to do was to collect enough money 
every year so that the new government could pay at least the 
interest on its debts. Congress, therefore, hastened to frame 
the first tarifif act in 1789. A tariff is a law fixing the rate 
of duties to be paid on goods imported from abroad. For 
many years such duties were the chief source of revenue for 
the national government. 

Alexander Hamilton had been brought up among the busi- 
ness men of the city of New York and as Secretary of the 
Treasury had a chance to show what the government might 
fairly do to aid and protect business. He induced Congress 
to promise that the public debt, which with interest amounted 
to about $50,000,000, should be paid at its full face value 
(1789); and that action gave the people confidence that the 
new government would keep its promises to lenders. He also 
insisted that the outstanding state debts should be taken over 
by the federal government. The holders of those debts also 
were delighted with this new finance. 

142. Corporations and Banks (1791). — A new business 
method was the forming of corporations. When a man does 
business by himself, or when several men are united in a firm, 
the property of every person or partner can be taken for any 
debt of the concern. If, however, a number of people obtain 
a written charter from the state allowing them to unite in a 
company or corporation, each one subscribes a part of the 
necessary money and receives " shares of stock." The total 
capital stock is fixed at a certain sum and is divided into 
shares of perhaps $100 or $50 or $10 each. Certificates are 
issued to each stockholder stating that he owns so many shares, 



FINANCE AND POLITICS l8l 

and they can be sold from hand to hand. If the corporation 
fails, the stockholders are held liable only for the amount they 
have invested and perhaps for a small fixed sum in addition. 
By 1 79 1 the state governments had chartered several corpo- 
rations and companies to build roads and bridges, and had 
chartered also a few banks. People who were making and 
saving money began to invest in these corporations. 

Hamilton next proposed that the federal government should 
charter a United States Bank in the corporation form, and 
he carried through an act creating such a bank with ten 
million dollars of capital (1791). This was as big in pro- 
portion to the wealth of the country as a bank of a thousand 
millions would be to-day. 

143. Two Schools of Politics. — Such action was not ac- 
ceptable to the country farmers, who owned no ships or stock 
in corporations, and wanted no banks. The spokesman for 
their point of view was Thomas Jefferson, then a well-to-do 
slave-owning planter. He believed that governments, whether 
state or national, ought to do as little as possible. He once 
said that the happiest people were the Indians, because they 
had no government to bother them. He wanted taxes to be 
low, and thought that the main purpose of governments was 
simply to make it possible for business men and all others to 
take care of themselves. 

Hamilton and Jefferson also differed with regard to the share 
of the people in their own governments. Hamilton and his 
friends thought that the suffrage ought to be given only to 
people who had some property; and that even those voters 
ought to select the richest and most intelligent men of the 
community who might act for them, and tell them how to 
vote. 

Jefferson favored giving a part in the government to the 
people at large. He admired the New England town meetings 
and public schools, and wanted to set up the same sort of thing 
in Virginia. He believed in widening the suffrage, and the 
new western states gave the ballot to most of the adult men. 
Hamilton was no believer in the wisdom of the people, and 
is said once to have exclaimed, " Your people, sir, is a great 




7 .iir i<j (ill '^"" ji^ 

"1 AODEO TO <j./ii; ' /i:;V^ 

;|lSStSS.Pp| TERRrrORvJl/?--) \ 

1 \ l>?4 /f iWLouUl 







Sav.nnah L'NITED STATES 

I> 1S02 

Date of nJmit'sioD of 

" states shown thus:-. 1796; 

the con'-ec'utive order of 




130 



Luni^itiidc 



182 



PARTIES AND NEW STATES 1 83 

beast! " But Jefferson wrote, " I am persuaded myself that 
the good sense of the people will always be found to be the 
best army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will 
soon correct themselves . . . give them full information of 
their affairs through the channel of the public papers." 

144. The First Parties (1793). — After Washington was 
reelected President in 1792, Jefferson and Hamilton resigned 
from their offices, and each of them headed a body of friends 
which gradually grew into a political party. The Hamilton 
group took up again the old name of Federalists, or Federals; 
the Jefferson group at first called themselves Democrats, and 
later Republicans. They meant both names to show that they 
were a people's party. 

The Federalists were strong in the shipping and commercial 
states: New England, New York, Maryland, and South Caro- 
lina. The Republicans were strong in Pennsylvania, in most 
of the southern states, and in the frontier states. President 
Washington, Vice President John Adams, and many others 
joined the Federalist party. James Madison, George Clinton 
of New York, Samuel Adams, and many others were Republi- 
cans. The leading western Republican was Albert Gallatin 
of Pennsylvania, a Swiss immigrant. He was a broad-minded 
man, an ardent believer in popular government, and soon be- 
came the strongest Republican member of Congress. 

145. New States (1791-1796). — When North Carolina and 
Rhode Island ratified the federal Constitution they filled 
out the original thirteen states (§ 128). Three new states 
were soon added as follows: 

(i) Vermont had been a discontented part of New York, 
and the people took the opportunity of the Revolution to 
break away (§ no). New York agreed that Vermont should 
be a regular state, and it was the 14th to enter the Union (i 791). 
It was a farming community, with about 90,000 people, and 
it was the first state that had no sea front. 

(2) In settling the land claims of the states Kentucky was 
left a part of Virginia (§121). It attracted thousands of 
settlers, nearly all from Virginia and other southern states. 
They found the " blue-grass country " fertile, and many 

hart's SCH. hist. — II 



1 84 



THE FEDERALISTS IN POWER 



planters took their slaves with them. These people expected 
statehood, and in 1792, by the consent of Virginia, were ad- 
mitted to the Union as the 15th state, with about 75,000 people. 

(3) North Carolina was slow in giving up her western claims, 
and just after the Revolution an informal " State of Franklin " 
was set up in East Tennessee; but Xorth Carolina in 1790 
agreed that the government of the region should go to the 
United States, and (together with the South Carolina cession) 
it was made the " Territory South of the Ohio River." By 
1796 so many emigrants had gone out there, that the tract 
was admitted to the Union as the state of Tennessee (i6th 
state), with about 70,000 people. 

Congress in 1790 moved from New York to Philadelphia, 
but it fixed the permanent national capital on the Potomac 
River, where a District of Columbia was set off from the states 
of Maryland and Virginia. (The part ceded by Virginia was 
later given back to that state.) Here the city of Washington 
was laid out, and public buildings were constructed. In 1800 




p-^m:: 






pi:!!jj:i.::.iii.,., 







The Capitol in 1800 

the federal government moved there and found the place a 
straggling town with a few incomplete public buildings. 

14b. The French Revolution (1789-1800J. — The United 
States was much stirred by the breaking out of a terrible revo- 
lution in France (1789). After several years of struggle a 
republic was set up, and the king and queen of France were 
executed by the guillotine (1793). The French tried to follow 
the American, plan of framing a bill of rights, and summed up 
their republican doctrine in the three famous words, " Liberie, 
Egalite, Fraternite," which mean " Freedom, Equality before 
the Law, Brotherhood," 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 1 85 

War broke out between France and Great Britain; the 
French hoped that the United States might give them aid, but 
President Washington issued a Proclamation of Neutrahty 
(1793) warning Americans not to take part with either side. 
Fierce and bloody wars raged in Europe during the next eight 
years, but the Americans, as peaceful neutrals, traded with 
both France and England, and thus built up the most profit- 
able shipping industry that they had ever known. 

At the same time the Americans opened a rich trade with 
Asia and sent their little vessels out to the Pacific coast for 
furs. One of them, the Columbia of Boston, discovered the 
mouth of a great river, which Captain Gray named the Co- 
lumbia River for his ship (1792). Thence they sailed to China, 
or sailed on direct voyages from American ports, and brought 
home silk, tea, chinaware, and hundreds of thousands of hard 
dollars. 

147. The English and the French (1793). — Meantime both 
France and England treated the weak United States as if it 
had no rights. Then and ever since it has been recognized 
that vessels of a " neutral " power — that is, a nation not at 
war — may be captured during a war between other powers 
under any of the following circumstances: (i) If they are 
caught with " contraband " bound to one of the fighting na- 
tions. Contraband means arms, military stores, and other 
things used in war. (2) If they try to enter a blockaded 
port, outside which a force of ships is stationed to stop vessels 
from entering. However, armed ships of both nations seized 
many American vessels which were neither carrying contra- 
band nor bound to a blockaded port. 

The British began to " impress " British sailors; that is, to 
seize them and compel them to serve in the royal navy, where 
the pay was small and the treatment harsh. Another serious 
grievance was that they also impressed British subjects whom 
they found on board American ships, and even some native- 
born Americans, because they talked English and looked like 
Englishmen. 

Roused to anger by this ill-treatment, in 1794 the country 
was about to go to war with Great Britain. As a last hope 



i86 



THE FEDERALISTS IN POWER 



Washington sent John Jay 
over to England, and he 
made the Jay Treaty, in 
which the British promised 
to give up the fortified 
trading posts south of the 
boundary (§123), and 
agreed that they would no 
longer capture American 
vessels without reason. 
The treaty said nothing 
about impressments. 

The French with some 
reason declared that the 
United States was treating 
England better than its old 
ally and friend, France. 
When, in 1797, President 
Adams sent over to France 
three commissioners, Pinck- 
ncy, Gerry, and Marshall, 
to bring about a friendly 
understanding, they were received by three go-betweens, 
usually called "X, Y, and Z." These men told the commis- 
sioners that they could accomplish nothing unless they would 
bribe the heads of the French government. President Adams 
firmly refused to pay tribute, and that led to a short naval war 
between the United States and France (1798); but in 1799 the 
French government passed into the hands of Napoleon Bona- 
parte, a brilliant young general, and peace was shortly made. 
148. Adams and Jefferson (i 796-1801). — John Adams had 
been elected President in 1796 by a close vote over Jefferson. 
Thereafter the Federalists and Republicans were very hostile 
to each other. The Federalist Congress passed the " Alien and 
Sedition Acts" (1798) to expel dangerous foreigners and to 
punish newspaper criticisms of the government. Jefferson and 
Madison replied in the "Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions," 
which argued that those acts were contrary to the higher law 




Mrs. John Jay 



ADAMS AND JEFFERSON 



187 



of the Constitution (§ 127), and were therefore null and void, 
and need not be obeyed. 

Next year came the untimely death of Washington — he 
was only 67 years old. Throughout the civilized world he was 
renowned for his noble character, and for his greatness as a 
general and a statesman. The nation mourned his loss. 

When the election of i8oa came on, the Federalists were 
quarreling among themselves. Jefferson was the Republican 
candidate against John 
Adams. Aaron Burr of New 
York, one of the first "bosses" 
of that state, was another 
Republican candidate, who 
expected to become Vice 
President. 

The electors gave Jefferson 
and Burr each 73 votes, while 
Adams received 65. At that 
time the electors did not in- 
dicate which man they pre- 
ferred for President and which 
for Vice President; as there 
was a tie between Jefferson 
and Burr the decision had to 
be made (early in 1801) by 
the House of Representatives, 
in which the Federalists had 
a majority. They came near 
choosing Burr, but Hamilton 
and other wise men pointed 
out that, bad as they thought 
Jefferson, he was not so dangerous as Burr. Enough Federal- 
ists were convinced to give to Jefferson the necessary votes 
for President, and Burr became Vice President. 

149. Summary. — This chapter tells how the new Con- 
stitution was set in motion by the acts of Congress and appoint- 
ments of men necessary to carry it out; and how the people 
divided into two political parties. 



I 



Washington Monument, 555 feet high, 
erected in the capital as a memorial 
to the first President 



1 88 THE FEDERALISTS IN POWER 

The new government was organized in New York, where 
Washington was inaugurated as President. He drew the 
heads of departments into a kind of council which was called 
the Cabinet. He appointed the holders of the new federal 
executive offices, and the judges. 

Under the guidance of Alexander Hamilton, Congress passed 
a series of acts intended to give the new government an in- 
come which would enable it in the end to pay its debts. The 
state debts were taken over. A United States Bank was 
chartered which was intended to be helpful to business men. 

All the thirteen original states came into the Union, and 
three new ones, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, were soon 
admitted. 

The French Revolution of 1789 brought trouble to the 
United States because the French and the British captured 
many American vessels. Nevertheless, trade was good, 
especially with the Orient. By the Jay Treaty (1794) differ- 
ences were settled with England, but France was not satisfied 
and there was a short naval war. 

The Federalists and Republicans quarreled over the Alien 
and Sedition Acts of 1798. Washington's death weakened 
the Federalist party. In 1800 John Adams was beaten for a 
second term as President, and Jefferson was elected. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Allen, Our Naval War with France. — Avery, Un. States, 
VII. — Bassett, Federalist System. — Hart, Wall Maps. — Shepherd, Hist. 
Alias, 196, 202. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, chs. xii, xiii. — Coman, Industrial 
Hist., 132-156. — Elson, Side Lights, I. chs. iii, iv. — Fish, Dev. of Am. 
Nation., chs. iv-vi. — Hart, Formation of Union, §§72-92. — Johnson, 
Union and Democ, chs. iii-vi. — Smith, Wars, 142-181. — Southworth, 
Builders of Our Country, II. ch. ix. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, no. 15. — Caldwell and Persinger, Source 
Hist., 286-306. — Hart, Contemporaries, III. §§76-105; Patriots and 
Statesmen, II. 363-380, III. 15-85; Source Book, §§71-77. — James, 
Readings, §§45-51. — Johnston, Am. Orations, I. 84-143. — Old South 
Leaflets, nos. 4, 10, 38, 74, 98, 103. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, 
nos. 55-64. 

Side Lights and Stories. Brown, Arthur Mervyn. — Conant, Alex- 
ander Hamilton. — Freneau, Poems, III. — Johnston, Lewis Rand. — 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 1 89 

Mitchell, Red City. — Twining, Travels in Am. — Wallington, Am. Hist, 
by Am. Poets, I. 297-313. 

Pictures. Avery, Vn. States, VII. — Wilson, Am. People, III. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 138) I. How was the government organized in 1789? 2 (For an 
essay). The inauguration of President Washington. 

(§ 139) 3- What were the first executive departments of the government? 
4. Whom did Washington make heads of the new departments? 

(§ 140) 5. How was the Supreme Court organized? 6. How did Wash- 
ington select men for appointment? 

(§ 141) 7. Why were United States bonds so low in value? 8. What 
was the tariff of 1789? 9. What were Secretary Hamilton's plans for the 
public debt? 10 (For an essay). Account of Alexander Hamilton. 

(§ 142) II. What is a corporation? 12. What are shares of stock? 
13. What was the United States Bank? 

(§ 143) 14. What were Jefferson's ideas about government? 15. What 
were Hamilton's ideas? 

(§ 144) 16. What was the Federalist party? 17. What was the early 
Democratic or Republican party? 18. How were the principal public 
men divided between the two parties? 

(§ 145) 19. How was the union of thirteen states completed? 20. 
How and when was Vermont admitted to the Union? 21. How and when 
was Kentucky admitted? 22. How and when was Tennessee admitted? 
23. How was Washington founded as the capital? 24 (For an essay). 
Early descriptions of the city of Washington. 

(§ 146) 25. What was the French Revolution? 26. Why was the 
United States neutral in the European war? 27. How did Americans 
open up trade with Asia? 28 (For an essay). Account of an early 
American voyage to Asia. 

(§ 147) 29. What is meant by contraband; by blockade; by impress- 
ment? 30. What was the Jay Treaty with Great Britain? 31. What 
was the X, Y, Z mission? 

(§ 148) 32. What were the Alien and Sedition Acts? 33. What were 
the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions? 34 (For an essay). Account 
of the death of Washington and public mourning. 35. How did the 
election of 1800 come out? 36. How was the President chosen in 1801? 



CHAPTER XIV 

EXPANSION AND NEUTRAL TRADE (1801-1812) 

150. President Jefferson (1801-1809). — When Thomas 
Jefferson was inaugurated in 1801, the FederaHsts felt that the 
end of the RepubHc was at hand, for they looked upon him as 
an atheist, a liar, and a demagogue. He was not an atheist; 
he liked to read the New Testament. He was a reserved man 
and did not tell everybody all that he knew, and hence some 
thought him false. He was a believer 
in government by the people, which many 
of the Federalists thought shocking, and 
they were sure that he could not be 
sincere. 

He was keenly interested in education 
and science, and urged his state to set 
up public schools and a state university. 
He was a natural reformer. As President 
he had large ideas of making the govern- 
Siihouette of Thomas nicnt better and more efficient. He ap- 

Jefferson 

pointed Albert Gallatin Secretary of the 
Treasury with instructions to aid in cutting down the cost of 
government; and they succeeded. 

Jefferson desired to be the President of the whole people, 
and in his inaugural address appealed to the Federalists in 
golden words: " Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one 
heart and one mind. . . . We have called by different names 
brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we 
are all Federalists." 

One of the things that JefYerson liked was what he called 
" republican simplicity." He sent in written messages to 
Congress instead of making speeches, as had been the habit of 
Washington and Adams. He would have no ceremony at the 

190 




JEFFERSON AS PRESIDENT I9I 

White House, and shocked the minister of Great Britain by 
opening the door himself when that great man came to call, 
and by receiving him in dressing gown and slippers. 

Jefferson was never what we should call a " good mixer." 
He hated speechmaking and meeting crowds of people whom 
he had never seen before. Yet no President has had more 
influence in Congress; none has ever made warmer friends 
among the people ; and none but Lincoln has ever done so much 
to extend the idea that all the people ought to have a share in 
their own government. 

151. Control of the Government (1801-1809). — Jefferson's 
party had a good majority in both branches of Congress, and 
were able to pass a new set of laws. But John Marshall, the 
leading Federalist in Virginia, had just become Chief Justice 
and set out to teach Jefferson a lesson. Taking advantage 
of a dispute over a small appointment, Marshall held that a 
certain order given by the President was not legal; and that 
part of an act of Congress was contrary to the higher law of 
the Constitution (§ 127) and hence was no law. Jefferson paid 
no attention to this decision, which seemed a kind of political 
trick. 

The President had great trouble with the federal officers. 
Unless he would use his power to remove some of the Feder- 
alist officeholders, there would be hardly any vacancies; for, 
as Jefferson -said, " Few die and none resign." However, he 
refused to make a " clean sweep " of the persons whom he 
found in office, but did change about a third of those who 
drew good salaries. Those whom he appointed removed the 
clerks and other subordinates within their offices. Many 
officeholders were saved by changing their politics. Large 
numbers of Federalists voted for Jefferson for a second term 
in 1804; and he carried almost every state in the Union. 

152. Napoleon Bonaparte (1796-1804). — Soon after Jeffer- 
son became President, Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself 
to be emperor of the French. During twenty years he was 
the greatest man in the world. Napoleon was of an Italian 
family living in Corsica, which was a part of France. He 
entered the army, and during the French Revolution (§ 146) 



192 EXPANSION AND NEUTRAL TRADE 

helped to put down the mob in Paris with his cannon. To 
get rid of him, the government sent him with an army to Italy 
(1796), where he won so many victories that he became the 
foremost man in France (§ 147). As emperor, his word was 
law in every part of the French dominions, and in the many 
European countries and provinces that he conquered. 

Napoleon had a magnificent plan to construct a new French 
Empire with colonics all over the world; and therefore he 
wanted Louisiana, which for about forty years had been a 
Spanish colony (§ 71). In his direct relations with the United 
States, Napoleon always showed himself slippery and false. 
He had not the least idea of courtesy or of keeping promises; 
hence the Americans often suffered in their dealings with him. 
In 1800 he forced the king of Spain to make a treaty ceding 
Louisiana back to France. Then he sent a fleet and army 
to conquer Haiti, which, though formerly a French colony, had 
broken away and was under an independent negro government. 

When in 1802 Jefferson heard of the transfer of Louisiana 
he took alarm and wrote a letter which was probably shown to 
Napoleon, in which he said: " There is on the globe one single 
spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. 
It is New Orleans." 

153. Interest of the West in Louisiana (1802-1803). — ■ 
The West was urgent that the United States should secure 
New Orleans. Out of the 5,300,000 Americans in 1800, 
500,000 were living west of the mountains. The Northwest 
Territory was growing fast. In 1800 Connecticut gave up the 
Western Reserve (§ 121); that area was then united with the 
settlements on the Ohio and in the interior; and they were all 
admitted to the Union in 1803, as the state of Ohio (17th 
state) with about 65,000 people. In 1803 a government post 
was established at Fort Dearborn, the site of Chicago. 

The westerners had no good roads or waterways to the east, 
and sent their surplus products down the Mississippi ; and they 
were much annoyed by the Spanish control of the river's 
mouth. They were still more disturbed when they learned 
that Louisiana was about to pass to France, which was then 
the strongest country in the world. 



NAPOLEON AND LOUISIANA 



193 




Fort Dearborn. Built in 1803, destroyed in 1812, rebuilt in 1816. From a model in the 
Chicago Historical Museum 

Jefferson was already trying to buy the triangular strip 
known as the Island of Orleans (§ 71), which included the 
city of New Orleans; and also to buy Spanish West Florida, 
which extended from the Apalachicola River west to the Iber- 
ville and the Mississippi. He now sent James Monroe as a 
special envoy, to act 




with Robert R. Liv- 
ingston, the regular 
minister to France, 
in making clear to 
Napoleon that the 
United States must 
have part of the sea 
front of Louisiana. 

154. Annexation of Louisiana (1803). — Meanwhile Na- 
poleon's army in Haiti had been almost destroyed by disease 
and by the negro troops. War with Great Britain was at hand, 
and he saw that the British would capture Louisiana if he 
annexed it. Suddenly he changed his mind and directed his 
ministers to offer to the Americans the whole vast territory of 



New Orleans and West Florida 



194 EXPANSION AND NEUTRAL TRADE 

Louisiana. For several days Livingston and Monroe haggled 
over the price; but April 30, 1803 was the date of a formal 
treaty by which the whole of that enormous territory was 
transferred to the United States. (See map, pages 8-9.) 

It was a good bargain for both parties. Napoleon received 
about $15,000,000 for a colony which he could not occupy, and 
for which he had paid nothing. The United States secured 
the area from which later were organized thirteen states and 
parts of states, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to Montana. 
To Jefferson is due the chief credit for thus doubling the area 
of the United States. He saw the great advantages of the 
territory, and Congress readily followed his lead and completed 
the purchase. 

155. What was Louisiana? (1803) — The next question 
was. What is included in Louisiana? The treaty stated that 
France ceded " the colony or province of Louisiana, with the 
same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it 
had when France possessed it." Therefore, the Americans 
fell back on the definition in the old grant of 17 12 to Crozat 
(§ 66), which included in Louisiana all the country watered 
by streams flowing into the Mississippi. The part east of 
the river, except the little Island of Orleans, was already in- 
cluded in the United States; the western part reached north- 
ward and westward to the Rocky Mountains. 

As to the boundaries on the Gulf there was a dispute, (i) 
"Louisiana when France possessed it" included the Gulf 
coast from the Mississippi to the Perdido River. (2) Louisi- 
ana " with the same extent that it now has in the hands of 
Spain " did not include the strip between the Iberville and 
Perdido rivers. The Spaniards had never meant to transfer 
this region which they called West Florida to Napoleon; and 
how could he turn it over to the United States? 

The Americans also claimed that Louisiana extended along 
the coast of Texas as far as the Rio Grande, because of La 
Salle's little settlement on Matagorda Bay more than a cen- 
tury earlier (§ 39). Many years later it was discovered that 
Napoleon meant at the time to take the coast of Texas, and 
not to take West Florida. The United States lacked the neces- 



LOUISIANA AND OREGON 



195 



sary information and was anxious to round out the purchase, 
and therefore in the end took West Florida, and gave up Texas. 
156. Expedition to Oregon (1803-1807). — Across the 
Rockies, beyond the boundaries of Louisiana, was a region 
called Oregon, which included the great Columbia River 
(§ 146). Jefferson was almost the only man of his time who 
clearly saw that the United States was bound eventually to 
stretch from ocean to ocean. As soon as he became President 
he induced Congress to approve an expedition to the Pacific, 
headed by his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and by 
William Clark, a brother of George Rogers Clark (§ 103). 
They had to cross a country almost as little known as the 
Antarctic continent is to-day. 




Western explorations, 1804-1807 



The party of forty-five men, for which Congress appro- 
priated only $2500, was provided by Jefferson with wise in- 
structions. The men left St. Louis in 1804, and spent the 
whole summer in working their tedious way in boats up the 
Missouri to Fort Mandan, near the present Bismarck, North 
Dakota. There they spent the winter, and in the spring of 
1805 thirty-one of them set off, guided by the " Bird Woman," 
an Indian squaw, the wife of one of the party. They crossed 
the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, and followed down 
the Columbia River to its mouth. That winter they spent 




1- _ jnd Claik meeting Mandan Indians on the Missouu 



FAR WEST 



197 



in Fort Clatsop, a little post which they built south of the 
river, near the ocean. In 1806 they found a somewhat dif- 
ferent route back to the Missouri and reached St. Louis again. 
157. Further Exploration of the Far West (1806-1811). — 
The Lewis and Clark expedition proved that it was possible 
to connect the eastern United States with the Columbia River 
country by a difficult land route. While Lewis and Clark 
were in Oregon, Lieuten- 
ant Zebulon M. Pike 
was ordered to find the 
sources of the Missis- 
sippi, and he reached 
Cass Lake — then 
thought to be the far- 
thest northern source of 
the river. The next year 
he was sent across the 
plains on a western ex- 
pedition. One day he 
saw a wonderful cloud, 
which as he came nearer 
proved to be the moun- 
tain now called Pikes 
Peak, which stood al- 
most on the western 
boundary of the Louis- 
iana Purchase. 

The valley of the lower 
Mississippi was a rich country, and when Louisiana was annexed 
there were about 70,000 people there, including 30,000 slaves. 
Immigrants poured in from the states to the westward. In 
18 12 the state of Louisiana was admitted as the i8th in the 
Union, with 80,000 inhabitants. Congress organized the rest 
of the Louisiana Purchase as Missouri Territory. St. Louis 
became the seat of a great fur trade up into the far North- 
west. The trappers and traders explored nearly the whole 
valley of the Missouri and reached Salt Lake. 

John Jacob Astor, a rich fur merchant of New York, under- 




John Jacob Astor, the first American millionaire 



198 EXPANSION AND NEUTRAL TRADE 

took to plant a post in Oregon, and sent a party directly across 
the mountains, and another party with a cargo of goods around 
Cape Horn by sea. In 1811 they built a post at Astoria, on 
the south side of the Columbia River. This post was the 
third of the strong claims of the United States to the possession 
of the Oregon country: (i) discovery of the river (1792); 
(2) exploration of the river valley (1805); (3) planting of a 
trading post south of the river (181 1). 

158. Burr Conspiracy (1805-1807). — The relations of the 
United States with the Southwest were tested by Aaron 
Burr, a shrewd but tricky politician, whom Jefferson disliked 
for trying to take the presidency in 1801 (§ 148). Alexan- 
der Hamilton drew on himself Burr's enmity, and was forced 
into a duel; Burr killed him at the first shot, and was in- 
dicted for murder (1804) but was never tried. When Burr's 
vice presidency expired (1805) he found himself out of public 
life. In 1806, with a force of about sixty men, he floated down 
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in boats. Nobody knows just 
what Burr intended to do, — perhaps he planned to invade 
Texas, which was then Spanish. Whatever his purpose, Jef- 
ferson had him arrested, brought back to Virginia, and put 
on trial for treason. The proof was not sufficient, and he was 
acquitted by the jury; but he was a broken man and never 
again was trusted to enter political life. 

159. European Wars and Impressments (1803-1812). — 
JefTerson was a man of peace, and he believed that wars could 
be prevented by showing to hostile countries that it was con- 
trary to their interests to fight. Nevertheless, when the Tri- 
politans on the north coast of Africa captured American ships 
and made the officers and crews slaves (1801), JefTerson had 
to send out a fleet, which bombarded the pirate towns and 
compelled the people to make peace. 

His princii)lcs were put to a more severe test in the series of 
great European wars. They came to be what was called " the 
battle between the elephant and the whale"; that is, be- 
tween the great army of France and the great navy of Eng- 
land. For many months Napoleon kept a large force at 
Boulogne. If he could only defeat the British fleet, the 



EUROPEAN WARS 1 99 

elephant could be ferried across the English Channel in a few- 
hours. In the famous sea fight of Trafalgar, in 1805, the 
combined French and Spanish navy was totally defeated by 
Lord Nelson, and England was thus saved from invasion. 

The British took this opportunity to renew the odious prac- 
tice of impressment (§ 147). There was perhaps some ground 
for impressing British sailors who had deserted and taken ser- 
vice on American ships; but there was none for impressing 
several thousand native-born Americans. In 1807 the British 
frigate Leopard fired on the American frigate Chesapeake, just 
outside Chesapeake Bay, and took off some British deserters, 
and also several native-born Americans. This was as hostile 
as if the British had sent a boat into the harbor of New 
York and arrested men on the wharf. 

160. Napoleon's Policy (1803-1812). — While the United 
States was annexing Louisiana and exploring Oregon, Napo- 
leon, in campaign after campaign, showed himself perhaps the 
greatest soldier who has ever commanded an army. He beat 
the Prussians; he beat the Austrians; he beat the Russians; 
but he could not beat the English fleets. Then he conceived 
the idea of ruining England by the Continental System. He 
issued a decree that no English goods or English ships should 
be allowed in any of the ports controlled by France; and that 
meant almost the whole coast of Europe from the Adriatic Sea 
around to the Baltic. 

The British replied with furious Orders in Council, under 
which any vessels bound to France could be seized; and 
both sides captured American vessels right and left. Within 
seven years 1,500 American ships were taken by England 
and France. The whale and the elephant were therefore 
wounding an innocent nation, which was not fighting on 
either side. 

161. Embargo (1807-1809). — To accept these violations 
of American rights would have been cowardly ; yet the coun- 
try was in no condition for war, and all efforts to make a 
new treaty with Great Britain failed. Therefore, Jefferson 
persuaded Congress to pass an Embargo Act; that is, an act 
to prevent the exporting of American goods. For more than 



200 EXPANSION AND NEUTRAL TR.\DE 

a year no foreign or American vessel was allowed to take a 
cargo out of the country. The hope was that the British or 
the French, or both, would give up the wrongful capture of 
American ships rather than be deprived of the breadstuffs and 
other exports from America. 

The embargo hit England hard, and the English merchants 
and shipowners very nearly induced their government to gi\e 
up. It also hit the vessel owners of the New England and mid- 
dle states, who protested with all their might. Furthermore, 
it hit the middle state and southern farmers and planters who 
had been shipping grain and tobacco to Europe. Hence, 
when Great Britain and France would not yield, the United 
States gave in; and, much against Jefferson's will, Congress 
repealed the embargo (1809). 

Jefferson was tired of ofifice, and though he would have run 
for a third term if necessary to prevent the choice of a Federal- 
ist, he pushed forward his friend and Secretary of State, Madi- 
son, who was in 1808 elected President. Jefferson had done 
great things for his country. He had doubled its territory, and 
made a lodgment on the Pacific coast; he had built up a great 
political party. He lived seventeen years longer, admired 
and respected, and died at his estate of Monticello, July 4, 
1826, on the same day as John Adams, exactly fifty years after 
the adoption of their famous Declaration of Independence. 

162. Summary. — This chapter carries the country through 
the events and quarrels of Jefferson's eight years as President. 
It deals especially with the treatment of the United States by 
foreign countries, and with the annexation of Louisiana. 

Jefferson had a hard task before him when he became Presi- 
dent in 1 801, for the Federalists were still strong, and thought 
him dangerous. Congress was on his side, but the Supreme 
Court was against him. Jefferson dismissed part of the fed- 
eral officeholders to make room for his friends. 

In foreign affairs he had to contend with Napoleon Bona- 
parte, the greatest and trickiest man of his time. When 
news came that Louisiana was to be given by Spain back 
to France, Jefferson took alarm. He tried to buy the east 
bank of the lower Mississippi. Instead, Napoleon offered 




Jefferson entertaining his friends at MonticeUo 



202 EXPANSION ANT) NEUTRAL TRADE 

him the whole of Louisiana, and Livingston and Monroe closed 
the bargain, which Jefferson carried out. The boundaries 
wTre disputed, as to both West Florida and Texas. The Presi- 
dent also sent an overland expedition to Oregon, and thus 
prepared the way for a footing on the Pacific coast. After 
the annexation of Louisiana, Aaron Burr attempted to stir up 
the Southwest. 

Trouble arose abroad through the great contest between 
" the elephant and the wiiale " ; that is, between France as the 
great land powan", and England as the great sea power. Napo- 
leon set in operation his Continental System. In order to 
injure each other, the two nations captured hundreds of 
American vessels. The British renewed their impressments, 
even daring to take men off the decks of an American ship 
of war. Jefferson attempted to bring England and France 
to reason by an embargo, but it cut off the trade and profit 
of American shipowners and producers, and had to be given 
up in 1809. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Avery, Un. Stales, VII. — Channing, Jeffersonian System. — 
Hart, Wall Maps, no. 11; Epoch Maps, nos. 7, 9. — Sanford, /Iw. Hist. 
Maps, no. 13. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 198, 202. 

Histories. Bogart, Economic Hist., ch. ix. — Channing, Jeffersonian 
System. — Coman, Industrial Hist., 175-179. — Fish, Dei', of Am. Nation., 
ch. vii. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, chs. x\i-.\viii. — Walker, 
Making of the Nation, chs. ix, x. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persingcr, Source Hist., 308-323. — Harding, 
Select Oralio7is, no. 12. — Hart, Contemporaries, III. §§ 106-122; Patri- 
ots and Statesmen, III. 87-191. — James, Readings, §§52-56. — Lewis 
and Clark, Journals (several eds.). — Old South Leaflets, nos. 44, 104, 105, 
128, 131, 174. 

Side Lights and Stories. Brooks, Son of the Rei'olution (West, Burr). 

— Bynncr, Zachary Phips (Burr). — Cable, Crandissimes; Strange True 
Stories of Louisiana. — Churchill, The Crossing. — Gordy, Am. Leaders 
and Heroes, ch. xix. — Hale, Philip Nolan's Friends. — Kingsley, Story of 
Lewis and Clark. — Mcrwin, Thomas Jefferson. — Seawell, Decatur and 
Somers. 

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, VII. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People. 

— Wilson, Am. People, III. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 203 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 150) I. What did Jefferson's enemies think about him? 2. What 
were his ideas about pubUc welfare? 3. What were his political ideas? 
4. What was republican simplicity? 5 (For an essay). A visit to 
Jefferson at Monticello. 

(§ 151) 6. How did the Supreme Court try to control Jefferson? 7. 
How did Jefferson arrange appointments to office? 

(§ 152) 8. What made Napoleon Bonaparte a great figure? 9 (For 
an essay). Description of the Emperor Napoleon. 10. What were the 
relations of Napoleon with America? 

(§§ 152, 153) II. Why did the United States object to the French 
annexation of Louisiana? 

(§ 153) 12. Why was the West interested in Louisiana? 13. What was 
the "Island of Orleans"? 14. How did Jefferson attempt to settle the 
Louisiana trouble? 

(§ 154) 15- Why did Napoleon give up Louisiana? 16. Why was the 
annexation of Louisiana a good thing for the United States? 17 (For an 
essay). Early descriptions of New Orleans. 

(§ 155) 18. What was meant by Louisiana? 19. What was the con- 
troversy about West Florida? 20. What was the controversy about 
Texas? 

(§ 156) 21. Why was Jefferson interested in Oregon? 22. What was 
the Lewis and Clark expedition and when did it occur? 23 (For an 
essay). Incidents in the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

(§ 157) 24. What were the Pike expeditions? 25 (For an essay). 
Accounts of Pikes Peak. 26. How was the Louisiana country organized? 
27. What was Astor's plan for Oregon? 28. What were the claims of the 
United States to Oregon? 

(§ 158) 29 (For an essay). The Burr conspiracy. 

(§ 159) 30- Why did Jefferson make war against the Tripolitans? 31 
(For an essay). Incidents in the Tripolitan War.- 32. What was the 
"battle between the elephant and the whale" ? 33. Why did not Napo- 
leon invade England? 34 (For an essay). Account of the Leopard's 
attack on the Chesapeake. 

(§ 160) 35. What was Napoleon's Continental System? 36. What 
were the Orders in Council? 

(§ 161) 37. What was the Embargo Act and how was it put into 
effect? 38. Why did the United States withdraw the act? 39. What did 
Jefferson do for his country? 



HART'S SCH. HIST. — 13 



CHAPTER XV 
WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN (1809-1815) 

163. A Troubled Period (1809-1812). — During Madison's 
first three years as President, he tried his best to keep out 
of war, and made every effort to induce Great Britain and 
France to respect the rights of neutral vessels; yet the cap- 
tures and impressments did not cease. Congress tried several 
peaceful methods of cutting off trade with one or the other 
foreign country, without effect. At one time Napoleon pre- 
tended to withdraw his decrees and thereby drew a number of 
American ships into French ports, where they were confiscated 
(1810). 

By this time the people were so nervous that when an Indian 
war broke out in the Northwest (181 1) it was mistakenly sup- 
posed to be stirred up by British agents from Canada. The 
Indian leader, Tecumseh, was beaten at the battle of Tippe- 
canoe by William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana 
Territory, and there were no more serious Indian wars in that 
part of the country. A few months later the southern Indian 
tribes rose and were badly defeated by General Andrew Jack- 
son of Tennessee. 

A real war with England seemed likely. The Federalists, 
who included most of the shipowners, had long clamored for 
war against France, but war of any kind was now the last thing 
they wanted. In spite of the captures, the profits of the car- 
rying trade were so great that new ships were constantly built. 
The owners, in spite of their losses, were erecting stately houses, 
and putting money into the banks and into new ships. Part 
of the captures were justified, for some Americans had a way 
of furnishing their ships with false papers, intended to conceal 
the real nature of their voyage from searchers. 

204 



OUTBREAK OF WAR 205 

164. Outbreak of War (1811-1812). — Madison still wanted 
peace, and so did his Secretary of the Treasury, Gallatin, who 
had paid off $40,000,000 of public debt, and did not wish to 
run up another war debt. However, they could not stand 
out against the " War Hawks," a group of young men who 
were to be the leaders during the next thirty years. The 
most remarkable among them were Henry Clay of Kentucky, 
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina (both members of the 
House of Representatives), and Andrew Jackson, a planter 
and Indian fighter of Tennessee. Daniel Webster of Massa- 
chusetts, who came into public life in 18 13, was opposed to 
the war. 

The War Hawks represented young voters, who had no 
remembrance of the losses and sufferings of the Revolutionary 
War. Clay was from the West, where people had no ships to 
lose and no sailors to be impressed, yet he felt that the govern- 
ment ought not to put up any longer with disregard of the 
American flag and American rights. He felt sure that Eng- 
land could easily be brought to terms. He proposed to con- 
quer Canada and insist on terms of peace " at Quebec or 
Halifax." Nothing seemed easier, for by this time there were 
about 7,000,000 Americans, and the whole population of 
Canada was not more than 450,000. In June, 181 2, there- 
fore, war was declared by about a two-thirds majority of 
Congress. 

165. Conditions of War (1812). — The reasons for war as 
stated by President Madison at that time, were as follows: 
(i) Intrigues of the British with the western Indians. This 
was an error. (2) Captures of vessels under the Orders in 
Council. At the last moment the British government an- 
nounced that these orders were withdrawn. It is doubtful 
whether that action was sincere. (3) Systematic impress- 
ment of American seamen. That was a good and sufficient 
reason for war. 

It was an unlucky moment to make war against England, 
for in 1 81 2 the Russians grew tired of the Continental System 
(§ 160) and refused any longer to support France. Napoleon 
therefore raised a " Grand Army " of 550,000 men and led 



206 



WAR WITH GREAT BRIT.ALN 



them into the heart of Russia. However unfairly England 
had acted toward the United States, the EngHsh were fighting 




i,-^W^^ v^ 



War of 1812 



in 18 12 for the freedom of Europe and America, against a 
military despot who was trying to make himself absolute 
master of Europe. 

The time was unfortunate also within the United States. 
The Federalists, after saying that " the administration could 
not be kicked into a war," now voted and worked against war; 
for they knew that England would have the right in war time to 
capture any American vessels found at sea. Many of the 
Republicans in the middle states also were opposed to the 
war; and in the election of 1812 they made a combination 
with the Federalists, put up DeWitt Clinton of New York as a 
candidate, and came near defeating Madison for reelection. 
The country was divided, and a large number of the people 
were opposed to war with England. 

166. American Defeats (1812-1814). — During the first 
two years the fighting on land was a series of defeats for the 



AMERICAN DEFEATS 



207 



Americans. Every attempt to take Canada was a failure. 
On the contrary, the Canadians captured Detroit and held it 
for a time; and they forced back every expedition from the 
United States that attempted to cross the Niagara River 
or to push north from the Hudson. At the end of the war the 
Americans did not hold an acre of Canadian soil. 

On the other hand, the British took and held about half the 
present state of Maine, the northern end of Lake Champlain, 
and the distant fur-trading post of Astoria (§ 157). The 




The fur-trading post and fort at Astoria in 1813 

crowning disgrace was the landing of a British force of about 
5000 men on the coast of Chesapeake Bay, and their march 
overland as though they were going to a picnic, till they cap- 
tured Washington (1814). Within a circle of sixty miles from 
the capital lived not less than a hundred thousand able-bodied 
Americans accustomed to the use of a gun; but the British 
were allowed to burn the public buildings and to return to their 
fleet, almost without losing a man. 

What was the matter? Not lack of men, for in the course 
of the war about 500,000 different Americans were enlisted as 
soldiers, mostly for brief service. There was no shortness of 
funds, though the government had to pay high for what it 
borrowed. The trouble was that Madison and his military 



208 WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN 

advisers were weak and incapable. The Secretary of War, 
John Armstrong, was the man who was responsible for the loss 
of Washington. To be sure, the roads were bad and it was 
hard to send men and supplies to the front; but somehow the 
Canadians marched over just as bad roads, and managed to 
reach the desired places. 

Throughout the war the United States raised only 50,000 
regular troops, and Congress would not allow the President to 
enlist a proper number. The War Department had to depend 
on the state militia, as the Continental Congress had done 
during the war of the Revolution (§ 98). In both wars thou- 
sands of brave and patriotic men were sent foru'ard who were 
not properly drilled, armed, or uniformed and who had no 
skilled officers, no proper equipment, no sufficient provision 
of surgeons and hospital stores. They lacked experience of 
fighting in large bodies against trained soldiers, and they felt 
little confidence in their officers. If 100,000 men had been 
raised in the first year of the war and had been properly drilled 
and commanded, by the second year they might easily have 
taken Quebec and Halifax, as was expected. 

167. American Victories (1812-1815). — Two successes 
encouraged the country. Commodore Perry built a little 
fleet of five vessels, attacked a British fleet at Put-in-Bay on 
Lake Erie (1813), and reported his victory' in a famous dis- 
patch: "We have met the enemy and they are ours: two 
ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." This opened 
the way for General Harrison to invade what was then called 
Upper Canada — now Ontario — and he beat the British at 
the Thames River (1813); but he did not hold Canadian 
soil. 

In 1 8 14 several pitched battles proved that the American 
militia, if seldom successful in attack, nevertheless could hold 
their ground and beat off assailants. A British expedition 
on its way south on Lake Champlain was stopped at Platts- 
burg by raw American sailors and soldiers, well commanded 
by Captain MacDonough and General Macomb. After the 
capture of Washington, an attack on Baltimore was beaten off, 
and the sight of the flag still floating over Fort McHenry 



AMERICAN VICTORIES 



209 



gave rise to the soul-stirring national song written by Francis 
Scott Key: 

"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light. 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? " 

The most stubborn resistance to the British and the greatest 
victory for the Americans was the battle of New Orleans, 
fought after peace had 
been made, but before 
the news was received 
(January, 1815). Gen- 
eral Andrew Jackson, 
with about 4000 men, 
few of whom had ever 
seen a civilized enemy, 
withstood the assault 
of General Pakenham, 
with 5300 crack troops, 
experienced in Euro- 
pean wars. The British 
lost 2000 and the Amer- 
icans about 70. No 
wonder that this glori- 
ous defense erased from 
the minds of the Amer- 
icans the defeats and 
humiliations of the 
earlier battles! 

168. Sea Fighting 
(1812-1814). — On the 
sea the tables were 
completely turned, for the little American navy, aided by 
the privateers, humbled the British navy and made havoc 
among the merchant ships. The odds against the Americans 
were frightful. Great Britain had about a thousand vessels 
of war, including many three-decker " ships of the line," carry- 
ing from 70 to 120 guns each. The Americans had only 
sixteen available ships, including three frigates of 44 guns each. 




General Andrew Jackson 



2IO WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN 

Within a few weeks after the beginning of the war, the frigate 
Constitution captured first the British inga.teGuern^re, and then 
the Java; and the frigate United States captured the Macedo- 
nian. In the course of the war there were ten other ship duels, 
and the Americans were victorious in eight of them. The ship 
Essex was sent around to the Pacific, and captured British 
whalers right and left. 

The British people were thunderstruck at such victories, 
which showed the pluck, skill, and marksmanship of the Ameri- 
can sailors. Gradually the American navy was worn down; 
two large ships, the Chesapeake and the President, were cap- 
tured; and the few remaining naval vessels were blockaded 
in home ports. Meanwhile, the British privateers swarmed 
out, and together with the cruisers snapped up over 400 Ameri- 
can ships, besides many small craft. 

The American flag was still floating at sea on numerous 
American privateers, which in the course of the war took nearly 
2300 British merchantmen, besides 165 taken by the navy. 
Our privateers were strong, they were fast, they were well- 
armed; they boldly sailed up and down near the British coast, 
till the shipowners were afraid to send vessels from England 
to Ireland. One privateer from Rhode Island made six 
cruises and took ships and cargoes worth about three million 
dollars. There was no safety so long as the American priva- 
teers were ranging the seas; hence the British merchants and 
shipowners demanded peace. 

169. Internal Opposition to the War (1812-1814). — Mean- 
while the Federalists were doing their best to interfere with 
the success of " Mr. Madison's war." A good part of the 
hundreds of vessels captured belonged to New England 
owners, and those that safely reached port had to pay duty on 
their cargoes to the treasury at Washington. Many of the 
New England ports were blockaded by British ships and the 
ships and sailors were left idle. 

Hence several state governors refused to allow their militia 
to march when called by the United States, on the ground 
that they were summoned, not to defend the country, but to 
conquer Canada. Nevertheless thousands of New England 



PEACE 211 

men volunteered and took part in the war. When the British 
attacked Maine, then a part of Massachusetts, the federal 
government refused to send any troops to defend it. 

In 1 8 14 the New Englanders were so discontented that an 
informal meeting was called to discuss what should be done 
to relieve New England. This so-called " Hartford Conven- 
tion " sat in secret, and was suspected of a plot for secession 
from the Union. No such proposal came from the convention, 
but it did demand changes in the federal Constitution which 
would have made the federal Union no longer possible. 

The whole country was tired of war, the more so because 
heavy war taxes were laid ; and the public debt increased from 
40 millions to 120 millions. After the capture of Washington, 
all the banks in the country stopped giving out specie to pay 
their depositors or to redeem their notes (§ 109). That left 
nothing but paper money in circulation. For many reasons 
the Americans wanted peace as much as the British. 

170. Peace at Last (1814). — Before the American war 
ended, peace had come to Europe through an alliance of nearly 
all the nations of Europe against Napoleon. The Russian 
campaign of 18 12 (§ 165) was a horrible disaster to Napoleon, 
for probably not one fourth of the French Grand Army ever saw 
their homes again. The allied powers, when they saw their 
enemy weakened, drove Napoleon backward and in 18 14 in- 
vaded France and compelled him to give up his throne. Napo- 
leon raised another army in 18 15 but was again completely 
beaten by the British and Prussians at the battle of Waterloo, 
and was imprisoned for the rest of his life on the distant island 
of St. Helena. 

For some time American commissioners had been in Europe 
trying to make peace; and in December, 18 14, a treaty was 
signed by them at Ghent (Belgium) which was very favorable 
to the United States. The British agreed to restore all the 
American territory that they held, and gave way on almost 
every other serious question except that of impressments; but 
when the European war ended, impressments stopped, and 
that method of raising men was never used again by Great 
Britain. 



212 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN 




The signing of the treaty of Ghent. The chief American commissioner was 
John Quincy Adams; behind him stands Albert Gallatin 

Almost everybody in the United States was delighted with 
the result. The New Englanders forgot their grievances, and 
the rest of the Union was glad enough to put an end to the 
sacrifice of money, trade, and men. Within a few years the 
Federalist party died out. 

The war left in the minds of the English people the knowl- 
edge that the Yankees — as they called the Arnericans — were 
as good sailors, as good fighters, and as good men as the 
British themselves. 

The War of 1812 was in the end a good thing for the United 
States. It showed that the country could not get on with a 
w^eak government and with small men at the head of affairs. 
It developed several brilliant soldiers such as Jackson and 
Harrison, both of whom afterwards became Presidents of the 
United States. Above all, it taught the people of all the 
states that they had one flag and one country. It helped to 
make the nation. 

171. Summary. — This chapter is devoted to the War of 
1812, paying little attention to the details of land and sea 
fighting, but setting forth the spirit of the people, their defeats 
and victories, and the general results of the war upon the nation. 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 213 

After 1809 war seemed likely, and a little Indian war broke 
out on the northwestern frontier. Western and southern 
leaders favored war, and expected to conquer Canada. They 
forced a declaration of war on Great Britain by the United 
States in 18 12, mainly on the two issues of the captures of 
vessels and the impressment of American seamen. It came 
just when Napoleon was trying to make himself dictator of 
Europe; and the United States fought his enemies, who ought 
to have been our friends. 

It was expected that the war would be fought outside the 
borders of this country; but the United States stuck to the 
old system of enlisting militia for short terms, and the result 
was a series of heartbreaking defeats in most of the land battles. 
The militia showed that it was made of good stuff when 
properly commanded, as was seen by the repulse of British 
attacks at Plattsburg and New Orleans. 

The glory of the War of 18 12 is in the lake and sea fighting. 
The little navy and the privateers taught Englishmen that, 
ship for ship and man for man, the United States was the 
equal of Great Britain. The damage inflicted on the British 
merchant ships by privateers was one of the principal argu- 
ments for peace. Jackson's victory at New Orleans left a 
sense of being victorious throughout. 

The New Englanders and many of the people in the middle 
states were from the beginning opposed to the war. In a con- 
vention at Hartford in 18 14 some of the leaders demanded 
changes in the system of government. After Napoleon was 
defeated in Europe, the British had nothing to gain by keep- 
ing up hostilities, and agreed to the easy terms of the Peace 
of Ghent (18 14). 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Babcock, Rise of Am. Nation., 6, 88, 136. — Hart, Wall Maps. 
— Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, nos. 15, 16. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 200. 

Histories. Babcock, Rise of Am. Nation., chs. i-xi. — Bassett, Un. 
States, 317-338. — Johnson, Union and Democ, chs. xi, xii. — Johnson, 
War of 1812. — Smith, Wars, 203-250. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 323-334. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, III. 123-129; Patriots and Statesmen, III. 192-317; 



214 WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN 

Source Book, §§82-87; Source Readers, III. §§76-81, 89-98. — James, 
Readings, §§58-61. — Johnston, Am. Orations, I. 164-215. — .Mac- 
Donald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 66-70. 

Side Lights and Stories. Altshelcr, Herald of the West (Washington, 
New Orleans). — Barnes, Loyal Traitor (Privateering). — Brady, For the 
Freedom of the Sea (Sea fighting); Midshipmen in the Pacific. — Dunn, 
TrJie Indian Stories, chs. iv-ix. — Eggleston, Roxy (Tippecanoe). — 
Hollis, Frigate Constitution. — Kaler, With Perry on Lake Erie. — Scol- 
lard, Ballads of Am. Bravery, 40-48. — Tomlinson, Boy Soldiers of 1812; 
War of 1812. — Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, I, 324-382. 

Pictures. Mentor, serial no. 103. — Wilson, Am. People, III. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 163) I. How did the United States try to keep the peace? 2. What 
were the principal Indian wars of the period? 3 (For an essay). Account 
of the battle of Tippecanoe. 4. How did the shipowners make money 
during the European war? 

(§ 164) 5. Who were the "War Hawks"? 6. How did the West feel 
toward war? 7. What was Henry Clay's plan of war? 

(§ 165) 8. What were the official reasons for the War of 1 812? 9. What 
was the situation in Europe in 1812? 10 (For an essay). Account of 
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. 11. How did the F"ederalists receive 
the war? 

(§ 166) 12. How did the land war go in 1812 and 1813? 13 (For an 
essay). Account of the capture of Washington in 1814. 14. Why 
was the war on land unfavorable to the United States? 15. How were 
troops raised and trained? 

(§ 167) 16. How did the sea war go in the War of 1812? 17 (For an 
essay). Account of the battle of Put-in-Bay. 18 (For an essay). The 
British defeat at Plattsburg. 19. What gave rise to the song of the Star 
Spangled Banner? 20 (For an essay). Account of the American victory 
at New Orleans. 

(§ 168) 21. What preparation had the Americans made for war at sea? 
22 (For an essay). Account of one of the sea victories of the Americans. 
23. What part did the privateers take in the sea war? 

(§ 169) 24. Why was New England opposed to the war? 25. What 
was the "Hartford Convention"? 26. What was the effect of the war on 
finances? 

(§ 170) 27. How was Napoleon driven out of European affairs? 28. 
What was the treaty of Ghent? 29. What was the effect of the War of 
1 81 2 on the English? 30. What was the effect on political parties? 31. 
What was the effect on the American people? 



CHAPTER XVI 
GOING WEST (1790-1830) 

172. What was the West? — From 1790 to 1830 three 
groups or sections existed in the United States, as follows: 
(i) the North, extending from New Hampshire to western 
New York and Pennsylvania; (2) the South, extending 
from Maryland to Louisiana; (3) the West, extending from 
western Pennsylvania and New York to Missouri. On every 
national question that arose, the opinions and desires of the 
people of all three sections had to be taken into account. 

The new West began at the summit of the Appalachian 
Mountains. The western slope of these ranges is gradual and 
is drained by long rivers. One source of the Allegheny River 
is Lake Chautauqua, which is only seven miles from Lake Erie; 
and from the headwaters of the Kanawha, south of the Ohio, 
it is only a few rods eastward to the springs of the James River. 
The Allegheny and the Monongahela are each about 300 miles 
long; from their junction at Pittsburgh the Ohio runs 970 miles 
to the Mississippi, and it is iioo miles farther down the Mis- 
sissippi to the sea. 

Almost all the basin of the Ohio with its northern and 
southern tributaries is broken country, full of mountains, hills, 
or rolling ground. In 1800 most of it was still covered with 
the original forests of evergreen and hardwood. Travelers tell 
of walnut and chestnut trees ten feet in diameter and running 
up seventy feet before they branched. 

The West was blessed with rivers which had depth enough 
to carry rafts of timber, flatboats, and steamers. The Ohio 
was the great highway to most parts of the West; for the 
quickest route to the interior was to sail down the Ohio, and 
then by canoe or flatboat or steamboat to travel up such 
streams as the Wabash or the Tennessee. Hence the southern 

215 



2l6 GOING WEST 

parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were settled mostly by 
people from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, who 
came oxer the mountains to the Ohio River. 

173. Western Indians. — North of the Ohio River the 
whites found on the land such strong and warlike tribes as 
the Delawares and Shawnees, Miamis and Wyandots. In 
Ohio the Indians twice defeated United States troops, until 
General Anthony Wayne thoroughly beat them and made 
them agree to a division line (1795; map, page 159), east of 
which the settlers might freely make homes. From that time 
the only Indian war in the Northwest for many years was the 
brief Tippecanoe campaign (§ 163). 

In the Southwest the white men were in close contact with 
strong tribes, especially the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
Seminoles, and Creeks. These tribes were fierce and war- 
like, and determined to stay on their lands. For nearly fifty 
years after the Revolution these Indians and the frontiersmen 
fought each other, " war to the knife and the knife to the 
hilt," as the saying went. Andrew Jackson and other com- 
manders at last so weakened them that there were no more 
dangerous Indian wars in the South. 

The Indians who were left were put on " reservations " ; that 
is, on tracts of land that were not subject to the laws of the 
states or territories in which they lay. The remnants of the 
fierce tribes in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi were carried 
far across the Mississippi, to what came to be called Indian 
Territory. The United States government appointed agents 
to look after these and other Indians, and to keep out white 
intruders. 

174. Indian Life in the West. — Most of the western 
pioneers wanted to get rid of the redskin neighbors who wan- 
dered about the settlements and had no notion of taking up 
farms and living among the whites. Missionaries were sent 
out to some of the tribes, and they tell us that the Indians 
thought the white man's life dull, and enjoyed their own free- 
dom. They believed in a Great Spirit and a future life, but 
seem to have had no idea of evil spirits until they were taught 
by white men that there were devils. 



THE INDIANS 217 

Their social life was gay; they enjoyed dancing and feast- 
ing. They lived chiefly on game and corn. The names of 
Indian places are often musical, as Catawba and Mahoning; 
but some of their towns and villages bore curious names, for 
instance, " Gekelemukpechuenk." They often grew tired of 
a fixed place, or their enemies disturbed them, or the white 
people crowded them so that they wandered away and built a 
new village. 

Prisoners, whether white or Indian, often had to " run the 
gantlet," between two rows of people armed with switches, 
clubs, and hatchets. Then they were led around and were made 
to dance and tell their deeds in battle. Unless ransomed or 
adopted into the tribe — which was one way of keeping up the 
number of warriors — prisoners were usually put to death, the 
victims never uttering a cry or groan, but singing and taunting 
their torturers. The Indians had many good qualities, but 
they and most of the white people could never learn to live 
together in peace and friendship. 

175. White Settlers. — In spite of all obstacles the West 
grew wonderfully fast. In 1790 it already contained about 
110,000 people; in 1810 there were 1,220,000 in Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana; in 1830 
there were 3,300,000, of whom about half lived south of the 
Ohio. To-day in the same region there are over 26,000,000 
inhabitants. 

What sort of people were these settlers? Reverend Joseph 
Doddridge in his Notes on the Settlement writes the following 
stirring verses about the strong and capable kind of people 
who helped to build up the new country: 

" Where Allegheny's towering, pine-clad peaks, 
Rise high in air, and sparkle in the sun. 
At whose broad base the gushing torrent breaks, 
And dashes through the vale with curling foam, 

" My father came, while yet our world was young, 
Son of the trackless forest, large and wild. 
Of manners stern, of understanding strong, 
As nature rude, but yet in feeling, mild." 



2l8 GOING WEST 

A less desirable class of settlers was thus described by a 
visitor in 1790: " Great numbers emigrate to the back part of 
North and South Carolina and Georgia, for the sake of living 
without trouble. The woods, such is the mildness of the 
climate, produce grass to support horses and cattle, and chest- 
nuts, acorns, and other things, for the food of hogs; so that 
they have only a little corn to raise, which is done without 
much labor. They call this kind of life following the range. 
They are very ignorant, and hate all men of education; they 
call them pen-and-ink men." 

These two kinds of settlers, the energetic and the shiftless, 
could be found in all parts of the West. Up to 1830 very few 
foreign immigrants found their way west of the mountains, 
but the descendants of the colonial Dutchmen, Scotch-Irish, 
and Germans (§ 68) joined with the descendants of the English 
in building up the new western states. 

176. How they Reached the West. — To reach the new 
settlements emigrants had to cross a broad belt of rugged hills 
or mountains, usually in wagons drawn by oxen. Six weeks 
was considered good time for the six-hundred-mile journey 
from central New England to northern Ohio, for the roads 
were swampy and full of stumps. The shallower streams 
could be forded; and many of the settlers used the " Con- 
estoga wagon," (page 220), which had a seamless and water- 
tight body shaped much like a boat, so that if the ford 
was too deep the wagon would float. Some provisions were 
carried; others were bought on the road; and game and fish 
caught during the journey added to the pleasure of the meals. 

Women and small children were generally carried, but 
hundreds of thousands of people walked all the way. There 
were wagon roads across the mountains, through Bedford, 
Pennsylvania, and through Cumberland, Maryland; and a 
direct road into Kentucky was made in 1792. Provisions and 
supplies could be carried on packhorses, but most settlers, 
when they reached their new home, had nothing except the 
clothing they stood in, and a little bedding. 

Boat travel was a great relief when a big river was reached. 
Down the Ohio floated countless rafts on which were built 



MODES OF TRAVEL 219 

little houses with open fires; but a favorite craft was the 
" keel boat," twenty or thirty feet long, with a cabin. The 
travelers found the Ohio River crooked and rapid, and the 
danger from Indians and river pirates made a voyage ex- 
citing. 

The flatboat took the place of the modern wagon, trolley 
car, and automobile. A French traveler who was much in- 
terested in the flatboats of the Monongahela says: " I could 
not conceive what these large square boxes were, which, 
abandoned to the current, presented by turns, their ends, 
their sides, and their corners ... I at length discovered sev- 
eral families in these boats, which also conveyed their horses, 
their cows, their poultry, their dismounted carriages, their 
plows, their harness, their beds, their agricultural tools." 

177. The Steamboat. — Nothing has more changed the 
conditions of life both in the East and in the West than the wide 
use of the steam engine. It takes the power which is stored 
in wood, coal, or oil, and puts it into a form in which it can be 
used for factories, mines, transportation, and farm work. 

Steam engines had been used to work pumps in English mines 
ever since about 1700. The first practical steam engine which 
could drive machinery was built about 1760 by the English- 
man James Watt; but 
such an engine could 
transfer its power only 
a few yards. 

Why not put an , .^f^,^,^. .,..,-„-. - 
engine on a vessel J^;. 'in, 

and make it turn a ^'^r'Tv^r.r- "©^ 
paddle wheel, to move _-^^^ ^-9^tT^^ 
the craft along? This _ 
idea occurred to sev- 
eral inventors in 
America and abroad; 
but the first man to build a steamboat that would pay a 
profit to its owners was Robert Fulton of New York. In 
1807 he fitted an English engine to a paddle-wheel boat 
called the Clermont, which ran on the Hudson River against 




First western steamer, built in 181 1 




Pioneer families moving west across the Appalachians in a Conestoga wagon 



WESTERN STEAMBOATS 



221 



wind and tide and current. This solved the problem, and 
in a few years steamboats were running on many of the 
eastern rivers. 

In i8ii Nicholas Roosevelt and others of New York built 
the steamer New Orleans at Pittsburgh ; and after the War of 
1 812 steamers spread through all the larger western streams. 
The westerners worked out a type of very shallow boat, with 
side wheels or stern wheels, some of which would run in two 
feet of water, and could push far up into the back country. 

Boats of a different type were built for the Great Lakes, 
and after the Erie Canal was finished in 1825, the traveler 
could go all the way from 
Nev/ York to the head of ^-^-Ji 

Lake Michigan by Hudson 
River steamers, by horse- 
drawn canal boats, and then 
by lake steamers. This sys- 
tem of travel helped to build 
up Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
Illinois. 

178. Pioneers at Home. 
— Once arrived, the pioneer 
and his family usually lived 
in a one- or two-roomed cabin 
with a loft overhead and a 
chimney with a big fireplace, 
which was the center of 

family life, just as it had been in early colonial days (§ 53). 
When Abraham Lincoln as a boy moved to Indiana, he 
lived for a time in a " half-faced camp," which was simply 
a room without any front, with a fire of logs built just 
outside of the opening. After their first hardships, the 
western people, especially north of the Ohio, had a good 
supply of food; they could raise, or trade for, wheat, barley, 
corn, rye, and buckwheat. Their orchards and gardens fur- 
nishQd fruit and vegetables. From the hard maples the 
farmer made . his own delicious maple sugar. Cattle were 
kept everywhere, and that meant a supply of milk and 

hart's sch. hist. — li 




The early settlers built temporary shelters, 
called " half-faced camps " 




l'riii<'i|i:il Kuads 
. Cnniils 

'Stfnmliiint ICoutcs 
' Fur Trade Koute 



Longitude 90° West 



from S5" Greenwich 



PIONEER LIFE 



223 



butter; every few weeks somebody would " kill," and all the 
neighboring famihes got pieces of the meat. Hogs abounded 
and the settlers had plenty of hams, bacon, salt pork, and 
sausages. 

As soon as people became fairly well off they built frame 
houses, especially on the Western Reserve, where the neighbors 
joined together in '' house-raising " ; that is, they set up solid 
frames of squared 
oak beams fastened 
together with 
wooden pins. Such 
frames, when cov- 
ered with clap- 
boards, made 
houses some of 
which are as good 
now as they were a 
hundred years ago. 

Clothing cost 
little money but 
much labor. Many 
farmers, north and 
south, kept sheep, 
and from the an- 
nual spring shear- 
ing the women 
spun yarn on those 
big wheels which 
are now curiosities 
in museums. 
Many of them grew 

flax, and spun the fiber on the small spinning wheels. Then, 
with their old-fashioned wooden hand looms, the women made 
cloth of woolen or " linsey-woolsey " ; that is, of mixed wool 
and flax (§ 82). In the South they made clothing out of 
hornespun cotton cloth dyed with butternut juice. 

To show what they could do, farmers sometimes sheared a 
fleece of wool from the sheep's back in the morning, and l>y 

•hart's sch. hist. — 13 




After the harvest came the husking bee, when the farmer 
and his neighbors met for a social evening 



224 GOING WEST 

the evening it had been washed, carded, spun, woven, dyed, 
cut, sewed, and was being worn. Children needed no elabo- 
rate clothes; many little ones wore nothing but a tow shirt. 
Most children went barefoot a good part of the year, to their 
great delight. Shoes were worn during cold weather and on 
Sunday. 

The southern mountains were settled chiefly by those who 
were satisfied with poor land, far from towns and highways. 
Visitors to these mountains may still see just what frontier 
life was a hundred years ago, for many mountaineers now live 
in poor cabins, are poorly fed, and are clad in garments of 
cloth made by their own spinning and weaving. 

The settlers outside of the mountain districts had a livelier 
life, because new people were always coming in and gathering 
in the little towns. Young people had their frolics and 
dances, husking bees and kissing games. Hunting was a 
favorite amusement, for there were still deer and bear in most 
parts of the country, and prodigious pigeon roosts, where 
thousands of birds alighted till they sometimes broke down 
the branches of trees with their weight. 

179. Health and Disease. — The western people ought to 
have been healthy, for they spent most of their working hours 
out of doors and slept in rooms full of cracks and openings, 
which gave opportunity for plenty of fresh air. Never- 
theless the bane of the frontier was disease. Rheumatism 
was a fearful evil which disabled strong men and women. 
Mosquitoes caused fever and ague, often called " chills " 
or " shakes," which descended upon the pioneer in many 
varieties. People heard that "Peruvian bark" — that is, 
quinine — would cure the chills, but it was hard to procure. 

Another dread of the frontier was accident. When men 
were crushed by falling trees or by wagons, or were injured by 
bullets, they were attended by unskillful doctors with rough 
surgery. The country doctor was the only dentist, and used 
a tool shaped like a log hook when he pulled the aching 
teeth. 

The birth rate was high, and the older children in a large 
family helped to bring up the younger ones; every strong boy 



WESTERN TOWNS 225 

and willing girl added to the family forces. The death rate 
also was very high, for weak people wore out under the hard- 
ships, and doctors did not know how to fight disease. It was 
a maxim that " you must starve a fever "; hence thousands of 
patients died after the fever had gone and just when they 
needed strengthening food, because their loving friends would 
not give them enough to eat. 

Smallpox was still a dreadful curse; thousands died of it, 
and in every part of the country were many " pock-marked " 
people who bore for life the scars of the disease. About 1796 
Edward Jenner, an English doctor, made the wonderful dis- 
covery that if he took a bit of the matter from a kind of sore 
on a cow, and pushed it into a scratch of the skin, it would 
cause a slight illness; after this the person thus "vaccinated " 
was almost free from the danger of smallpox. Gradually the 
practice of vaccination was spread among the people, so that 
nowadays smallpox is a rare disease. 

180. Western Towns. — For many years the West was 
almost entirely a farming region, but parts of the north- 
western states were planted by New England people in just 
such villages as those from which they came. In both the 
North and the South little towns sprang up as posts for trade 
with the Indians and settlers, or as county seats. These new 
towns grew rapidly and so did the old places, such as Pitts- 
burgh, Detroit, St. Louis, and Mobile. Cincinnati was for 
more than half a century the largest city in the Northwest. 
Cleveland was founded in 1796 on Lake Erie at the mouth of 
the muddy little Cuyahoga River. St. Paul, at the head of 
navigation on the Mississippi, became a flourishing frontier 
trading post. 

Farther south sprang up such towns as Louisville at the falls 
of the Ohio, Memphis and Natchez on the Mississippi, and 
Shreveport on the Red River. New Orleans was the exchange 
point between the up-river steamboats and the sea-going ships, 
and was the largest and richest southwestern city. It was a 
gay and lively place, in which more than half the people lived 
in the French quarter, spoke French, and had their own stores, 
markets, and theaters. 



226 GOING WEST 

Many of the western cities received striking names. Some 
were named by the French, for example, Vincennes, La Crosse, 
and St. Louis; some bore Indian names, such as Chicago; 
some were named for famous men such as Columbus and 
Madison. Some of the names were fanciful, such as the origi- 
nal name of Cincinnati, which was " Losantiville ": " L " for 
Licking, " os " for mouth, " anti " for across, and " ville " for 
town; that is, " The town opposite the mouth of the Licking." 

Most of the western towns were poorly built, dirty, unpaved, 
and infested with pigs and other animals, which were allowed 
to run the streets. A traveler who visited Pittsburgh in 1789 
says of it: " The Towne at that time was the muddiest place 
that I ever was in; and by reason of using so much Coal, being 
a great manufacturing place & kept in so much smoke & dust, 
as to affect the skin of the inhabitants." 

181. Western Churches. — Both in the Northwest and in 
the Southwest most of the settlers came from church-building 
and church-going communities in the East. Nevertheless 
many of the frontiersmen were rough and godless. Good 
missionary work was done by such men as the Episcopal Bishop 
Chase of Ohio, and the Congregationalist home missionary 
Timothy Flint. The Methodists and Baptists were great civ- 
ilizers of the frontier, and made use of the so-called " circuit 
riders." These were eager young ministers, who had a round 
of little churches, and rode from one to another to preach. 

A western invention that is still in use was the " camp meet- 
ing," which was part picnic, part summer vacation, and part 
revival meeting. A visitor says: " The notice has been circu- 
lated two or three months. On the appointed day, coaches, 
chaises, wagons, carts, people on horseback, and multitudes 
traveling from a distance on foot, wagons with provisions, 
mattresses, tents, and arrangements for the stay of a week, 
were seen hurrying from every point toward the central spot. 
. . . The ambitious and wealthy were there, because in this 
region religion is all-powerful . . . Aspirants for office are 
there, to electioneer, and gain popularity. . . . The young 
and the beautiful are there, with mixed motives, which it were 
best not severely to criticize." 



WESTERN CHURCHES 22/ 

At the camp meetings and in the churches the gospel was 
preached with great energy; the hearers were pointedly re- 
minded of their sins and of the danger of everlasting punish- 
ment. Many converts went through the " power," a sort of 
fit into which the sinner fell, and after which he felt that 
he was saved. Or they might be taken with the " jerks," 
which was a nervous twitching. Reverend Peter Cartwright, 
a Methodist leader, says that he once noticed among his con- 
gregation " two very finely dressed fashionable ladies, attended 
by two brothers with loaded horsewhips — while I was preach- 
ing the congregation melted to tears — and both the young 
ladies took the jerks and they were greatly mortified about 
it." The horsewhips were ready for the minister, but he 
frightened the brothers away. 

182. Summary. — This chapter is devoted to the settle- 
ment, growth, and life of the people of the West, from about 
1790 until about the year 1830. 

Of the three sections of the Union the West was the newest. 
It was settled by people from the eastern states, with a few 
foreign immigrants, in a rich and bountiful part of the world, 
well watered and supplied with navigable rivers. The northern 
Indians quickly gave way before the increasing tide of people, 
but the southern Indians were for years a danger. 

Part of the emigrants to the West were strong and vigorous 
people, others were shiftless. People went west at first on 
foot, with some pack and riding horses. As soon as roads 
were opened they used wagons, but it was a long and tedious 
journey across the lonely mountains. Once over, they 
reached the navigable western rivers and lakes, which soon 
after 181 1 were traversed by steamboats. 

The western pioneers provided for most of their own wants ; 
they grew their own food and made their own clothing. They 
enjoyed a rude plenty, but the whole region was cursed with 
disease, especially the dreaded malaria, commonly called chills 
and fever. Lively towns sprang up throughout the West. 
A great work was done by the frontier churches and mission- 
aries, who in their services and camp meetings excited their 
hearers, but after all made them better men and women. 



228 GOING WEST 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Wall Maps, no. lo. — Hinsdale, Old Northwest. — San- 
ford, Am. Hist. Maps, no. II. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, i88. 

Histories. Bogart, Economic Hist., ch. xiv. — Brown, Jackson. — 
Coman, Industrial Hist., 156-174. — Dodd, Expansion and Conflict, ch. 
ii. — Roosevelt, Benton. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, chs. xi- 
xiv, xix-xxii. — Turner, Rise of New West, chs. v-viii. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 260-264. — Fordham, 
Personal Narrative. — Hart, Contemporaries, HI. §§31-36, 137-141; 
Patriots and Statesmen, HI. 319-363 passim; Source Book, §§ 90-93; 
Source Readers, HI. nos. 11, 27, 34-53, 56-69. — Hill, Liberty Docs., ch. xx. 
— James, Readings, §§ 57, 64-66, 82. 

Side Lights and Stories. Butterworth, In the Boyhood of Lincoln. — 
Cooke, Leather Stocking and Silk. — Cooper, Pioneers. — Eggleston, 
Circuit Rider; Hoosier Schoolmaster. — Gordy, Am. Leaders and Heroes, 
ch. XX. — Riddle, Ansel's Cave. — Trowbridge, Start in Life. — Wallington, 
Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, I. 289, 293, 294, 322. 

Pictures. Dunbar, Hist, of Travel in Am. — Sparks, Expansion of 
Am. People. — Wilson, Am. People, HI. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 172) T. What were the sections of the Union down to 1830? 2. What 
was the geographical situation of the West? 3. What were the western 
forests? 4 (For an essay). Early voyages on the western rivers. 

(§ 173) 5- What were the northwestern Indian tribes? 6. The south- 
western? 7. How did the United States government treat the Indians? 

(§ 174) 8 (For an essay). Life among the Indians. 9. What kind 
of towns did they build? 10. How did they treat their prisoners? 

(§ 175) II. How fast did the West grow? 12. What kinds of settlers 
lived there? 13. What non-English people went to the early West? 

(§ 176) 14 (For an essay). Account of an early journey to the West. 
15. What sort of roads led to the West? 16. How were the ri\ers tra\'- 
eled? 17 (For an essay). An early boat voyage on a western river. 

(§ 177) 18. When and how were steam engines invented? 19 (For an 
essay). The first voyage of Fulton's steamboat Clermont. 20 (For an 
essay). Account of an early steam voyage on a western river or lake. 

(§ 178) 21. How did the pioneers find food? 22. How did they build 
houses? 23. How was clothing made at the frontier? 24 (For an essay). 
Life in the southern mountains. 25. What were the amusements of the 
pioneers? 

(§ 179) 26. What were the principal frontier diseases and remedies? 

(§ 180) 27. How did towns spring up? 28. What were the principal 
early western towns? 29. How were they built and improved? 

(§ 181) 30. What churches early appeared on the frontier? 31 (For 
an essay). Early camp meetings. 32. What were the methods of the 
ministers? 



CHAPTER XVII 
HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER (1815-1829) 

183. New Conditions (1815). — After 1815 Americans be- 
gan to realize the wealth of this country. The western prai- 
ries had been thought to be plains so barren that trees would 
not grow on them; the settlers soon found that they were 
covered by very rich black soil. Miners had long been pro- 
ducing lead in western Illinois and iron in Pennsylvania; and 
coal now began to be used on a large scale, first for heating 
houses and for forges, and then as fuel for making steam. As 
the population grew, there was a great demand for timber for 
building houses, fences, steamboats, and ships. 

The mines and forests furnished raw material for making 
iron and machines; and factories sprang up for spinning and 
weaving the wool and cotton, which were produced in great 
quantities. To run these factories, dams were built across 
large streams such as the Merrimack, the Hudson, and the 
James, which furnished large water powers. 

Now that larger crops were raised, more ore mined, more 
lumber sawed, more goods manufactured, it became necessary 
to provide means for carrying all these products to market. 
Hence there was a period of "internal improvements"; that 
is, of building roads and digging canals. 

Shipbuilding and ship sailing continued to be the greatest 
and most profitable lines of business. Besides the coasting 
trade there was a lively trade with the West Indies and with 
other Spanish and Portuguese colonies. 

This was a time of profitable commerce with China and 
southern Asia (§ 146). From such ports as Newburyport, 
Salem, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore smart vessels 
set sail for Canton, Batavia, or Calcutta. They carried out 
fish, flour, tobacco, and ginseng, a root much esteemed in 
China; they brought back silks, porcelains, teas, and spices. 

229 



230 



HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 



Youths, such as Robert Forbes, went to sea when fifteen 
years old, came back in a few years captains of vessels, and 
Hved to write entertaining accounts of their own lives. The 
heavy shipowners, such as the Grays and Bertrams of Salem, 
the Forbeses of Boston, and the Lows and Graces of Brook- 
lyn, owned small fleets and made great fortunes. Young men 
were often sent along as supercargoes to buy and sell the 

cargoes. They 
brought magnifi- 
cent furniture, jars, 
and dinner sets to 
their friends, and 
made profits which 
were the founda- 
tion of their own 
fortunes. 

184. National 
Aid to Business. — 
In the Congress of 
1815-1817 Presi- 
dent Madison, with 
Clay, Calhoun, and 
their friends, put 
through several 
acts of Congress in 
aid of business, of which the first was a new tariff (§ 141). 
During and after the embargo of 1807 (§ 161) foreign trade 
was so disturbed that some of the vessel owners put their 
profits into small factories for making cotton and woolen 
goods, iron, and other manufactures. After the war, foreign 
goods were brought over in great quantities, and the new 
factories declared that without a higher rate of duty on imports 
they could not compete with foreign merchants. Accordingly, 
in 1816 the first tariff was passed which was intended to build 
up American manufactures. 

According to modern ideas the rates were very low, ranging 
from about 15 per cent to 30 per cent; that is, a tax amount- 
ing to a fifth or three tenths of the original cost of the imports 




New England fishermen on the banks of Newfoundland 



NATIONAL AID TO BUSINESS 23 1 

had to be paid as duties. The new tariff was a popular act in 
the South and the West, but was opposed in New England, 
which still preferred to build and sail ships. 

The purpose of this " protection " act was to raise the prices 
of foreign-made goods, so that the American manufacturer 
could get a price which would enable him to keep in business. 
Some statesmen expected only that the tariff would keep 
"infant industries" alive till they became established and 
could get on without the aid of tariffs. Some were interested 
in making sure that goods and supplies needed in case of war 
should be produced here. Some wanted to keep out perma- 
nently all foreign goods that could be made in the United 
States. Henry Clay believed in an American System, by 
which the American people should do everything for them- 
selves. 

On the other hand, the shipping interests opposed a high 
tariff because they made their profits out of a large trade with 
foreign countries. The farming class had to pay higher prices 
for their goods because of the tariff, and they were made no 
richer by the profits of the manufacturers. The middle 
states and western farmers, however, favored a tariff because 
of the " home market " argument; that is, they thought they 
would get higher prices for their produce if manufacturing 
cities and towns grew up, with a class of wage hands who 
must buy their food of the farmers. 

185. Second United States Bank (18 16). — It will be re- 
membered how the early corporations were formed (§ 142). 
The system was extended by the states to many kinds of busi- 
ness, such as mining and manufacturing companies, city gas 
and water companies, canal companies, water power companies, 
and fur companies. 

The state banks, which were corporations chartered by 
state legislatures, were especially useful ; and all young Ameri- 
cans ought to understand what they did for the business 
man. (i) They received " deposits"; that is, surplus money 
waiting to be needed in business, or to be invested. (2) They 
paid " checks "; that is, written orders for money lying on de- 
posit. (3) They granted " discounts ": that is. loans to busi- 



232 HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 

ness men, usually for terms of only a few months. (4) They 
made " exchanges" ; that is, took a man's money at one place, 
and agreed to pay it at another place. (5) They issued 
" bank notes"; that is, their own promises to pay, in paper 
dollars or multiples of a dollar. These notes were paid out or 
lent by the banks. They passed from hand to hand as money, 
till somebody presented them at the bank to be " redeemed "; 
that is, to be paid to the holder in gold or silver. 

In 1816 there were about 250 state banks. Many were not 
able to redeem their notes, and some were frauds, but most of 
them were reliable and honest. For instance, it was noticed 
that notes were in circulation from a certain country bank in 
Rhode Island. A quantity of the notes were presented in a 
lump at the bank, which proved to be a blacksmith's forge. 
The blacksmith, who was the president of the corporation, 
was equal to the emergency, dug a keg of specie out of the 
cinders, and was able to redeem the notes and save his bank. 

The first United States Bank (§ 142) expired in 181 1, and 
President Madison and his advisers felt that there ought to be 
another, for a bank chartered by Congress ought to be better 
and safer than a state bank. Therefore, in 18 16 a second 
United States Bank was chartered with what was then the 
immense capital of $35,000,000. The federal government 
owned one fifth of the stock, and granted to the bank the right 
to set up branches in any state. The act committed the 
government to the two theories that banks were a good thing 
and that Congress ought to help business. 

186. Erie Canal (181 7-1825). — The increase of trade called 
the attention of the country to the bad state of the public 
roads. Congress was willing to grant money for this need; 
but President Madison prevented it by a veto, because he 
thought that roads and canals ought to be built by the states 
and not by the Union (1817). 

The hint was taken in New York, where people had been 
talking for years about a canal from the Hudson Ri\-er to 
Lake Erie; and they elected De Witt Clinton governor of New 
York in order to put it through. He hoped that the federal 
government would give assistance, but when that plan was 



CANALS AND ROADS 



233 



dropped the state began to dig the canal at Its own expense. 
Navigation from New York to Albany through the Hudson 
River was easy ; then the canal followed the Mohawk Valley 
and was raised by locks at intervals as far as the summit near 
Utica, 425 feet above the sea. After crossing the Genesee 
River at Rochester on a high viaduct it ran along on a sort of 
terrace south of Lake Ontario, and rose to a second summit of 
568 feet at Lockport. Thence it ran on the same level to 
the Niagara River just below Lake Erie. 

Work began in 181 7, and at the end of eight years the canal 
was open all the way through. It was 363 miles long and cost 
about $7,000,000, which was more than paid back by the tolls 
during the first ten years of its use. Though frozen over about 
a third of every year, the Erie Canal furnished a cheap com- 
munication between the Lakes with their steamers, and the 
harbor of New York with its foreign commerce. The result 
was that New York at once became the richest and largest 
city in the Union. 








The Cumberland Road, and the National Road 

187. Cumberland Road (1811-1829). — The only large in- 
ternal improvement carried out by the United States govern- 
ment was the Cumberland Road, which reached from the 
upper Potomac across the Appalachian Mountains to the 
Ohio River. These broad and rugged mountains were a great 
obstacle to western emigrants. To avoid them a route passed 
through the Mohawk Valley to Buffalo and then south of 
Lake Erie; another circled southward through the valleys of 
the Shenandoah and the upper James rivers, and by Boone's 
old trace (§ 73) to the Ohio River. The Cumberland Road 
was part of a third route to the Ohio River. 



234 



HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 



Secretary Gallatin (§ 144), who was a western man and un- 
derstood the needs of the West, secured an act (1803) pro- 
viding that part of the money received for public lands in the 
West might be used to build roads which would reach those 
lands and so help to sell them. Jefferson cordially approved, 
and in 1806 Congress began to appropriate money for that 
purpose. In 18 19 a road was finished to the Ohio River. 
The road, which is still in use, is 150 miles long, from Cumber- 
land on the Potomac, across the " Little Yock " (Castelman's 
Run), "Big Yock" (Youghiogheny), and the Monongahela 
to Wheeling on the Ohio River. It crosses four mountain 
ridges, the highest being 2300 feet above the sea. The road 
is well built with many stone-arched bridges, and cost about 
$1,700,000. Till railroads were built across the mountains, it 
was the best through route from the East to the West, and was 
used by stage lines, freight wagons, and immense droves of 
cattle. An extension usually called the " National Road " 
was built from Wheeling through Ohio toward St. Louis. 




A beautiftil bridge on the Cumberland Road 



NEW STATES 235 

188. Free and Slave States (i 789-1820). — After Louisiana 
was admitted to the Union in 1812 (§ 157), there were nine 
free states and nine slaveholding states. The population in 
the free states and territories grew faster than in the slave- 
holding section, and the North had more members than the 
South in the national House of Representatives. Neverthe- 
less, of the next four new states admitted (map, page 239), 
two were slaveholding and two were free: 

(i) Indiana was settled partly from New England and New 
York; but the southern counties were taken up by settlers 
from the southern states. The two groups disagreed on the 
question of slavery, but they combined to form a free state 
government, and were admitted to the Union in 1816 as the 
19th state, with 75,000 inhabitants. 

(2) Mississippi included some of the richest bottom land in 
the whole country and attracted settlers from all the slave- 
holding states. It had the special advantage of frontage on 
the river that was the great commercial route of the period. 
Mississippi was "admitted as the 20th state in 181 7 with about 
50,000 inhabitants. 

(3) Illinois drew many Immigrants from the slaveholding 
states of Virginia and Kentucky, and there were some slaves 
in the southern part of the territory. The state abounded in 
the richest land and had a splendid situation between Lake 
Michigan and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. When admitted 
in 1 8 18 as the 21st state, it contained about 40,000 people. 

(4) Alabama for a time grew up more slowly than Missis- 
sippi because the northern part was broken and even moun- 
tainous, but in 1 8 19 there were about 100,000 people in the 
territory and it was admitted as the 22d state. It Included 
several navigable rivers and a splendid sea front on Mobile 
Bay. 

189. The Sections and Slavery (1816-1819). — By this 
careful balancing In admitting states the Senate was equally 
divided between northern and southern members. The South 
could rely on nearly every southern member's voting in favor 
of slavery, and could count also on a few northern votes. 
The old South and the new southwestern states joined to 



236 HOW THE NATION CAISIE TOGETHER 

make a larger South. In like manner the northwestern states 
and the old North were drawn together as one North. 

For a long time slavery was looked upon as a labor problem; 
the main question was, Does it pay? Gradually a strong feel- 
ing arose against it on moral grounds. Many slaveholders, 
among them Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, opposed 
it. In the middle and southern states antislavery societies 
were formed, and gathered every few years in a meeting 
known as the " General Convention," which urged the 
southern states gradually to set the slaves free. 

190. Cotton Culture. — This southern movement against 
slavery might have been successful but for the growing im- 
portance of cotton. Tobacco was no longer verj^ profitable; 
it wore out the land. Rice was a small crop, grown only on 
the seacoast of South Carolina and Georgia. Cotton could be 
grown in the lowlands from southern Virginia to western Lou- 
isiana, and there was a foreign demand for it at high prices. 

Cotton was an American plant, but it was long neglected 
in the United States because it took so much labor to pick 
out the seeds. In 1794 a Connecticut schoolmaster, Eli 
Whitney, invented a " gin," a handy machine that would do 
the work of fifty slaves in seeding cotton. This machine 
changed the whole industry. Thousands of acres were 
planted, and rude slave labor proved available for cotton, be- 
cause it required much hoeing, thinning, and picking, and 
kept the laborer busy the whole year round. The North also 
was a great gainer from the cotton gin, for it furnished an 
abundant supply of material for the cloth-making mills. 

Prices ran high till 1820, usually about 20 cents a pound, 
which gave a large profit. About half to two thirds of every 
annual crop was sent to Europe; nearly all the rest went to 
the northern states, for the South for many years had no 
success at manufacturing cotton cloth. English workmen and 
mill masters brought over machinery to the northern states; 
and mills were built at Pawtucket and Providence in Rhode 
Island, at Cohoes in New York, at Philadelphia, and at many 
other places. New power looms were invented, and the mills 
were run with steam or water power. 



MISSOURI COMPROMISE 



237 



191. Missouri Compromise (1820). — In several matters 
Congress had to make decisions for or against slavery. To 
aid the slaveholders it passed a Fugitive Slave Law (1793), 
under which runa- 
ways to the free 
states could be 
captured ; and it 
allowed slavery to 
remain in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia 
(1801). On the 
other hand, Con- 
gress prohibited 
slavery in all the 
territories of the 
Northwest (1787), 
and forbade the 
foreign slave trade 
(1807). 

A test of the 
feeling of Congress 
came in 1820, when the people of Missouri Territory asked 
to be admitted into the Union as a slaveholding state. The 
lower valley of the Missouri River contained some land well 
adapted for slave labor. The territory was western in spirit, 
but slavery had existed there for a hundred years, and in- 
coming planters brought slaves from other states. If Mis- 
souri became a slave state the slavery system might spread 
northwest into the whole valley of the Missouri River. Hence 
the majority of the House of Representatives refused to admit 
Missouri except as a free state. 

The question was tangled by the action of the people of 
Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. The Maine 
people had other interests than those of the parent state, and 
Massachusetts consented to their forming a separate state. 

If both the new states came into the Union without slavery, 
the South would lose Its equal vote In the Senate; and perhaps 
no more slave states would be admitted to the Union. There- 




Effects of the Missouri Compromise 



238 HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 

fore, the majority of the Senate refused to admit Maine at 
all, unless Missouri were made a slave state. The deadlock 
was broken by the famous "Missouri Compromise," which 
was to the following effect: (i) Maine was admitted (1820) 
as a free state (23d in the Union) with 300,000 people; and 
Missouri was admitted (1821) as a slave state with 67,000 
population (24th state in the Union). (2) Slavery was for- 
bidden "forever" in every part of the territory ceded by 
France north of the parallel of 36° 30', excepting the state of 
Missouri. 

192. Russian America and Latin America (1809-1822). — 
Besides Great Britain, Spain, and the United States, a new 
power began to assert its claim to a share of North America 
about the time of the War of 18 12. That was Russia, which 
many years earlier had planted little trading posts in what is 
now Alaska, then others farther south. In 1821 she claimed 
the whole Pacific coast north of the parallel of 51°. 

Still more important was the appearance of a group of new 
Latin American countries, made up of former Spanish and 
Portuguese colonies. Nominally, Spain held all the coast of 
North and South America from Florida around to Puget 
Sound, except Louisiana, Brazil and the little colonies of Brit- 
ish, French, and Dutch Guiana. The regular Spanish gov- 
ernment was broken up by European wars (1809), and the 
colonies took care of themselves. After Napoleon's fall, Spain 
was ruled weakly and harshly, and again the colonies governed 
themselves; this time they meant to make themselves inde- 
pendent countries. 

Among the leaders of the movement the two greatest were 
Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin. Bolivar broke up 
the Spanish power in what is now Venezuela, Colombia, and 
Ecuador. San Martin formed a force in the La Plata region, 
made a heroic march across the mountains, and freed Chile. 
The two united in driving the Spanish out of Peru, their last 
stronghold in South America. After these revolutions, Mexico 
and Central America were the only Spanish colonies left on 
the mainland of North or South America. When they became 
independent in 1821, nothing was left of the once glorious 




I P A c I If 



239 




240 now THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 

Spanish empire in America except the two islands of Cuba 
and Porto Rico. 

The new Spanish Americans included four race elements, all 
of which can still be found in Mexico and other Latin American 
countries : (i) A few Spaniards from Spain and some others 

of pure Spanish descent. (2) A 
larger number of a mixed Span- 
ish and Indian race. (3) Indians, 
descended from the old Indian 
tribes, who were nowhere less 
than half of the whole popula- 
tion. (4) A small number of 
negroes and mixtures of negroes 
with Indians or whites, who 
T ' were few. While under Spain, 
General Simon Bouvar, 1 783-1830 nonc of thcse elements had ever 
had a chance to govern themselves, and in the hundred years 
that have since passed, few have learned that lesson. 

The people of the United States welcomed the independence 
of Spanish America because they sympathized with the new 
republics, and because the Latin Americans had broken up 
the Spanish colonial system of commerce (§ 80) and were eager 
to trade with all the world. Henry Clay headed a movement 
for recognizing them as independent countries; and in 1822 
Congress voted to do so, and President Monroe carried out 
the policy. Within a few years, seven new countries thus 
became our neighbors and sister republics. The Portuguese 
in South America set up the independent empire of Brazil, 
which was changed to a republic in 1889. 

193. Monroe Doctrine (1819-1823). — During this break-up 
of the Spanish empire, the United States by treaty with Spain 
purchased the two Floridas (18 19), and thenceforward held 
the whole ocean and gulf coast line from Maine to Louisiana. 
In this treaty the United States agreed upon a boundary across 
the plains and mountains from the Sabine River to the Pacific 
Ocean, and the Spaniards gave up all claims north of 42°. 
The Spanish colony of Mexico included Texas and California 
and thus was the next-door neighbor to the United States. 



MONROE DOCTRINE 



241 



Several great European powers, united in a sort of combine 
called the " Holy Alliance," thought it a bad lesson for their 
own peoples that Spaniards, even in America, should be al- 
lowed to set themselves free. Hence they were inclined to 




Ruins of the San Jose Mission in Texas: begun in 1718; completed in 1771; visited 
by Lieutenant Pike in 1807 



send over a fleet and army to recover the lost American prov- 
inces for Spain. The English wanted the new states to be 
free to trade with them; and George Canning, the British 
minister of foreign affairs, recognized how much the friendship 
of the United States meant to his country. He therefore pro- 
posed (1823) that the two countries unite in a statement that 
they would not permit such an invasion. 

On the advice of John Quincy Adams, who was Secretary of 
State, President Monroe took a different course. In his an- 
nual message of 1823 he included a statement which has ever 
since been known as the Monroe Doctrine, of which the main 
principles were as follows: (i) The new Latin American powers 
were independent, and Spain could never reconquer them. 
This was a fact. (2) All the territory in both the American 
continents was taken up by civilized countries, so that there 
was no room for any European nation to plant a new colony. 
This was intended as a warning to Russia. (3) European 
powers must not interfere with the Latin American states 
hart's sch. hist. — 14 



242 HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 

*' for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any 
other manner their destiny." This danger still exists. (4) 
The "European political system " of combining to use force 
against revolutions must not be extended to America. This 
warning was heeded by European nations. 

Monroe was trying to preserve peace in America. He 
argued that since the United States kept out of European 
quarrels, Europe must keep out of American concerns. The 
doctrine did its work: the plan of sending over a fleet and an 
army was given up; and with the exception of a French at- 
tack on Mexico in 1862, no European power has ever tried to 
conquer one of the American countries. 

194. Era of Good Feeling (1821-1822). — The Federalist 
party expired about 1822 and a period came called the " Era of 
Good Feeling," because there were no rival parties. In fact, 
it was an era of bad feeling among the friends of several men 
who wished to be President. In 1824 there were four candi- 
dates. As nobody had a majority of the electoral votes, 
the House of Representatives in 1825, partly under the influ- 
ence of Henry Clay of Kentucky, chose John Quincy Adams, 
son of former President John Adams, over General Andrew 
Jackson. 

Jackson's friends felt that their man had not been fairly 
treated, and did everything they could to make Adams's 
administration a failure. Almost the only debates that are 
now remembered were on the protective tariff (§ 184). In 
1824 the import duties were somewhat raised; in 1828 a high 
tariff act was passed that was so unpopular that it was called 
the " Tariff of Abominations." 

In the presidential election of 1828 Jackson was elected over 
Adams, by a combination of New York and Pennsylvania, 
nearly all the South, and every western state. He was chosen 
as a man of the people, particularly of the western people. 
The West at last had made its power felt in national politics. 

195. Summary. — This chapter describes the business con- 
ditions and the new means of transportation between 1815 and 
1829; it discusses the rivalry between the North and the South, 
and then the new American neighbors and the Monroe Doctrine. 



ERA OF GOOD FEELING 243 

When the United States was once free from its difficulties 
^ith European countries, it began to reaHze its wealth of land, 
timber, .minerals, manufactures, and foreign trade, and the 
need of better means of transportation. Congress gave the 
manufacturers a new chance by a protective tariff, and founded 
a second United States Bank. New York built the Erie Canal, 
and the federal government built the Cumberland Road. 

Slavery now began to divide the Union. Free and slave 
states were admitted in pairs, thus preserving an equal balance 
in the Senate. The strong movement against slavery in tne 
South was checked by the increase of cotton growing, aided by 
Whitney's cotton gin. The issue between the sections was 
raised in a debate over the admission of Missouri as a slave 
state. By the Missouri Compromise of 1820 it was so admitted, 
but the rest of the Louisiana purchase was divided between 
freedom and slavery by an east and west line on 36° 30'. 

A totally new question was presented by the advance of the 
Russians on the Pacific coast, and by the rise of new republics 
out of the ruins of the Spanish empire in America. The 
United States began to recognize these neighbors, and in 1823, 
by the Monroe Doctrine, gave notice to the world that no 
foreign powers could interfere with the new countries. 

The old Federalist party died out, and the elections of 1824 
and 1828 were fierce personal contests. Two tariffs were 
passed, considerably raising the scale of duties. In 1828 
Andrew Jackson was elected, the first western President. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Babcock, Rise of Am. Nation., 238, 272, 276, 286. — Hart, 
Epoch Maps, nos. 8, 10; Monroe Doctrine, frontis. ; Wall Maps. — San- 
ford, Am. Hist. Maps, nos. 11-19. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 199,205, 206, 
214. ^ Turner, Rise of New West. 

Histories. Coman, Industrial Hist., 181-206. — Dodd, Expansion 
and Conflict, ch. i. — Elson, Side Lights, I. chs. viii-x. — Fish, Dev. of 
Am. Nation., ch. x. — Hapgood, Webster. — Hart, Monroe Doctrine, pt. i. 
— Johnson, Union and Democ, chs. xiii-xix. — MacDonald, From Jef- 
ferson to Lincoln, ch. ii; Jacksonian Democracy, ch. iii. — Southworth, 
Builders of Our Country, H. — Turner, Rise of New West, chs. ix-xix. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, no. 4. — Caldwell and Persinger, Source 
Hist., 334-352. — Hart, Contemporaries, III. 130-136, 142-150; Pa- 



244 HOW THE NATION CAME TOGETHER 

Iriots and Stalrsmru, HI. 3^7-383 passim, \\\ 13-133. — James, Read- 
'"S^'. §§ ti^i (^9- — Johnston, Am. Orations, H. 33-101. — MacDonald, 
Doi . Source Book, nos 71-80. " 

Side Lights and Stories. Chittencicn, Am. Fur Trade. — Hcnt\ , Wilh 
Cochrane the Dauntless ^Sjian. .Am."). — Thayer, John Marshall. 

Pictures. Wilson, Am. People, \\\. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 1831 I. What wore the principal elements of wealth on American 
soil? 2. How were raw materials used? 3. What were internal im- 
provements? (See also § 186.) 4. What were the principal lines of 
foreign trade? 5. How ilid the vessel owners carry their gootls? 

(§ 184) 6. What was the tariff of 1S16? 7. What was the object of a 
protective tariff? 8. How iliil the sections and classes look on the tariff? 

(§ 185) 9. How were corporations extended? 10. How were banks 
useful to business? 11. Wluit was the second United States Bank? 

(§ 186) 12. How was the Erie Canal constructed? 13 (For an essay). 
Accounts of early voyages on the Erie Canal. 

(§ 187) 14. What were the principal roads to the West? 15. What 
was Gallatin's plan for internal improvements? 16. How was the Cum- 
berland Road constructetl? 17 (For an essay). Accounts of early trips 
on the Cumberland Road. 

(§ 188) 18. How was the balance of free and slave states brought about? 
(Sec also § 189.) ig. How and when was Indiana admitted to the I'nion? 
20. How and when was Mississip(>i admitted? 2\. How and when was 
Illinois admitted? 22. How and when was .Alabama admitted? 

(§ 189) 2},. How did opposition to slaver^' arise? 

(§ 190) 24. What were the principal southern crops? 25. What was 
the cotton gin? 26. Why was cotton a good crop for the South? 27. 
How were manufactures of cotton established? 

(§ 191) 28. Why was there a controversy over making Missouri a slave 
state? 29. What was the Missouri Compromise? 

(§ 192) 30. How did the Russians come into America? 31. What was 
the Spanish American empire? 32. How was the Spanish power de- 
stroyed? 33. What were the race elements in the Spanish American coun- 
tries? 34. How did the United States look on the new Latin .American 
countries? 

(§ 193) 3,'i- How tlid the United States extend its territory southward? 
36. How was the western boundary of Louisiana settled? 37. What was 
the Holy .■Mliance? 38. How was England affected? 39. What was the 
original Monroe Doctrine? 40. What has been its effect? 

(§ 194) 41. How did John Quincy .Adams become President? 42. 
How did Andrew Jackson become President? 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (1829-1860) 



196. The Three Sections (1830). — By 1830 the three 
sections, North, South, and West (§ 172), had somewhat altered 
and stood about as follows : 

(i) The North included the six New England and four 
middle states, with 5,500,000 inhabitants. It was much the 
most thickly settled section, and had the greatest variety of 
occupations, including most of the foreign trade, shipbuilding, 
and manufactures. It , 
was well provided with 
schools, newspapers, 
libraries, colleges, and 
like means of culture. 

(2) The South in- 
cluded Florida and the 
eight states from Mary- 
land to Louisiana, lying 
on the ocean and gulf; 
and also the interior 
states of Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Mis- 
souri, and the territory of Arkansas. Altogether the South con- 
tained about 6,000,000 inhabitants. Villages and towns were 
fewer than in the North, for most of the people lived in the open 
country. About half the land that was tilled in the South 
belonged to large slaveholding planters. However, a class 
of white farmers worked their own land, especially in the 
border states, lying next to the free states. The " mountain 
whites " and the " poor whites," who in some states were 
called " sand hillers," " red necks," or " hill billies," lived 
mostly on poor land, in the old backwoods fashion, and raised 

245 




Wall Street magnates, about 1835, with the old watch- 
dog of the Manhattan Company, a bank in the city 
of New York 



246 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 



hardly enough to feed and clothe their families. The South 
had few manufactures, fisheries, mines, or shipyards; and as 
the population was scattered it was hard to keep up schools, 
roads, and other means of civilization. 

(3) The West still included parts of New York and Penn- 
sylvania, but consisted chiefiy of the states of Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois, to which were later added Michigan, Iowa, Wiscon- 
sin, and Minnesota. In 1830 this West had 1,500,000 inhab- 
itants. The states on the southwestern frontier felt themselves 
part of the South, especially because the Mississippi River was 

their outlet. The north- 
westerners also used that 
river, but they enjoyed in 
addition a direct route to 
the Atlantic Ocean through 
the Erie Canal. Towns 
and cities grew up rapidly 
in the Northwest, and in 
time its timber and coal 
made it a manufacturing 
section. The West adopted 
the northern system of 
schools and churches, and 
shared in the northern de- 
sire for a protective tariff 

(§ 184). 

197. Population. — The 

rapid growth of the United 
States is one of the wonders of the world. From 1790 to 1890 
it doubled about every 25 years; there were about 4 millions 
in 1790, about 8 millions in 1815, 16 millions in 1840, and 32 
millions in 1865. Not all the sections grew equally fast. In 
1830 the North and West had 7 millions, against 6 millions 
in the South. This difference was due in part to a larger 
natural increase in the North, and in part to the foreign 
immigrants who settled there. 

In 1830 only a fourteenth of the people lived in cities; and 
of this " urban population " about five sixths was in the 

















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'1. 




NEGR 


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OPU^ 









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Increase in population in the United States 
from 1790 to 1870 



POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION 247 

North. New York was the largest city, with over 240,000 
people. Next came Philadelphia and Boston. The largest 
southern cities were Baltimore (81,000), New Orleans (46,000), 
Charleston, and St. Louis. The only sizable western city in 




St. Louis about 1850 

1830 was Cincinnati with 25,000. Chicago was a hamlet, 
and Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Detroit were still 
small places. 

198. Immigration. — The wage earners were increased by 
immigration, which caused one of the greatest changes in the 
history of the United States. Immigration from Europe never 
entirely ceased; and when the figures were first recorded in 
1821, it brought 10,000 a year; in 1830 the influx was about 
23,000. The voyage from Ireland required only from three to 
six weeks ; and hard times there — especially the famine of 1 846 
— drove hundreds of thousands of the Irish people to seek 
new homes over sea. About the same time Germans began to 
come in large numbers, principally from northern and western 
Germany. 

In 1825 about fifty Scandinavians, called the " Sloop-folk," 
made a direct voyage in a little vessel. Much later they were 
followed by thousands from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 
who found in Wisconsin and Minnesota a climate something 
like that of their own countries. Englishmen and Scotchmen 
easily made homes in America, and shared in the farm life, 
town life, and church life of the descendants of the English 
colonists. 



248 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

These immigrants were a boon to the country. They in- 
cluded thousands of laborers who quickly found employment; 
for there was work for everybody in clearing the forests, build- 
ing roads and canals, putting up buildings, and manning ships 
and factories. Many brought with them new ideas which the 
country needed, on good roads, on public buildings, on private 
dwellings, on amusements, on city life, on school and college 
education, and on politics. 

The Irish and part of the Germans preferred the cities, and 
all the seaports and many of the interior cities soon contained 
thousands of immigrants. Their influence was little felt in 
the South, where cities and factories were few and where men 
who worked with their hands feared that they would be classed 
with the negro slave laborers. 

199. Religion and Churches. — The great national church 
organizations described in an earlier chapter (§ 134) continued; 
but some new forms of worship were brought in by the immi- 
grants, who were Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish Prot- 
estants, German Lutherans, Scotch Free Presbyterians, and 
other sects. The Catholics, whether English, French, Irish, 
or German, at once became members of the Catholic Church 
of the United States. 

Some of the old national churches were divided, and many 
new local sects sprang up. The Presbyterian Church divided 
into what were called the Old School and the New School; 
off from the New School split a small antislavery body called 
the Free Presbyterian Church. The Methodists split, because 
of the slavery question, into the Methodist Church and the 
Methodist Church South. 

Out on the frontier, emotional religious methods were still 
popular (§ 181), City churches grew rich, put up handsome 
buildings, bought organs, stained-glass windows, and parson- 
ages. Evangelists — that is, ministers or laymen who spent 
their lives in trying to arouse people to lead a better life — went 
through the country. Many other preachers were famed for 
their eloquence and were leaders in reform. Among them 
were Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn; Father Taylor, the 
sailors' preacher of Boston; Charles G. Finney, the western 



CHURCHES AND COMMUNITIES 249 

evangelist; Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky; and Arch- 
bishop Hughes of New York. 

The Roman CathoHc Church had for centuries kept up 
missions for the heathen (§ 38). In 1806 some students at 
Williams College started the " Haystack Movement " for 
Protestant missions — so named from the place of the first 
conference. Church boards were formed, money was raised, 
and missionaries were sent all over the world. They went to 
Africa, to the Pacific Islands where almost the whole people 
of the Hawaiian group forsook their idols, to India, to Turkey, 
to China, and to the Indians in the West. The " home mis- 
sionaries " worked in the struggling settlements on the frontier. 
All sections — North, South, and West — took part in this 
movement and hoped that within a hundred years the whole 
world would turn to Christianity. 

200. Communities and Brotherhoods. — A like spirit of 
union and common effort was shown in societies and secret 
orders. The Masons formed lodges before the Revolution, 
and Washington was a member of the order. Against them 
rose an Antimasonic political party (1826) based on the idea 
that the order was opposed to good and just government. 
The Masons recovered from this attack, and other orders 
sprang up alongside of it, such as the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, the Druids, the Foresters, the Hibernians, the 
Red Men, and the B'nai B'rith. There were also secret col- 
lege societies, of which the Phi Beta Kappa was the first. 

Another group of societies was engaged in reform work, 
such as abolishing imprisonment for debt, securing the rights of 
women, and especially promoting temperance. The Washing- 
tonian societies were first in this field and their members 
pledged themselves to be moderate in using alcoholic drinks. 
This was soon followed by a total-abstinence movement, much 
aided by the agitation of the Catholic Father Matthew and 
by the order of Good Templars. The movement reached the 
state legislatures, and in 1851 the state of Maine passed the 
" Maine Law " forbidding the sale of liquor to anybody. 

Alongside the societies were individual reformers such as 
Dorothea Dix, an angel of mercy who went from state to 



250 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

state, pleading with legislatures to treat the insane as sick 
people who needed hospitals, and not as dangerous criminals 
who must be kept in order by abuse and torture. 

In many parts of the Union, " communities " were founded 
(§ 55) ; that is, settlements of men and women who agreed to 
live together, holding their property in common, and sharing 
the proceeds of their labor. One of the best-known commu- 
nities was Brook Farm near Boston, in which some of the 
keenest-wittcd people of New England tried living together, 
doing their own housework and farm work, and spending the 
rest of their time in what they called " plain living and high 
thinking." Nearly all these communities broke down, for the 
inmates grew tired of living by rule and went back to their 
own family life. 

201. Morals and Crime. — Churches and reformers did not 
save the country from crimes and punishments. Public whip- 
ping and branding were still in use in a few southern states as 
punishments for small offenses. In the national navy as well 
as on merchant ships, sailors were tied up and whipped for 
trivial acts. Prisoners were looked upon as a kind of public 
enemy. Throughout the Union most of the prisons were abodes 
of cruelty, except that in Pennsylvania there was a model 
jail where each of the prisoners was put in a cell by himself. 

The cities were very disorderly, for they had no regular 
police, and desperate riots were frequent. In 1834 the Ursu- 
line Convent near Boston was destroyed by a Protestant mob. 
A favorite amusement of college students and of town boys was 
to engage in " town and gown riots," which were a sort of 
free fight. The name lynching, which was long applied only 
to a whipping (§ 108), was now used to mean a killing. A mob 
would seize a man whom they supposed to have committed a 
crime and, without waiting for proof or for the action of the 
courts, would put him to death, sometimes with dreadful tor- 
tures. The first notable speech of young Abraham Lincoln 
was a warning that lynchings broke down the sense of justice 
and respect for law. 

In all parts of the country weak and helpless people were ill- 
treated. Children were severely whipped by their parents, 



LABOR 



251 



apprentices by their masters, sailors by their officers. Many 
factory hands were overworked and underpaid. Children 
were forced to work long hours. Convicts and the insane 
were often fearfully abused. 

202. Labor. — The United States included many farmers, 
sailors, shipowners, and large numbers of mechanics and fac- 
tory hands. In New England the farmers' sons and daughters 
came into the little mill towns, and ran the looms and other 
mill machinery. Another large group was that of men em- 
ployed in transportation, such as canal boatmen, teamsters, 




An early labor parade by the butchers of Philadelphia 

freight handlers and loaders, and roadmakers. Every year 
new opportunities of many kinds were opened up for wage 
earners. 

Men and women had hard work in those days. Farmers 
and their hired hands worked from sunrise to sunset, and the 
ordinary time of workmen was from 72 to 84 hours a week. 
Women and children often worked from 60 to 70 hours. 
Wages were low; unskilled laborers could earn from 50 cents 
to 75 cents a day; and carpenters and blacksmiths did well if 
they made a dollar and a half. 



252 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

The factories were still small, but some kinds of work — 
especially shoemaking — were sent out to New England farm- 
ers, who finished up the shoes as winter work. In the South 
and West, hand spinning and weaving were still common 
(§ 178). Provisions were cheap, and the standard of living 
for all classes was modest, so that workmen were better off 
than their wages would seem to show. 

In the South the negroes still carried on most of the trades, 
such as the work of carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths. If 
their master had no work for them on his own plantation, he 
would hire them out to a neighbor or to an employer in 
a town. For household tasks there was practically nobody 
except negro slaves, and the only way to be sure of a cook or a 
laundress was to buy her. There is even a tale that a negro 
congregation once bought and paid for the minister that they 
wanted. 

Most of the slaves, whether men, women, or half-grown 
children, were employed in the fields. The cost of their keep 
was not heavy — not more than $15 to $25 a year each. 
They ate coarse food, wore cheap clothing, and required no 
extras except, perhaps, some presents at Christm.as time. 
But it cost a great deal of money to buy slaves. In 1830 
they were worth possibly an average of $350 each. When 
working on rich new soil, such as was found in the " black 
belt " of central Alabama or the bottoms of the Yazoo River, 
slaves made money for their masters. But on poor land it 
was hard for the planter to make both ends meet; two negro 
slaves might do less work in a day than one hired white laborer 
in the North. 

203. Slave Life. — Slaves might be considered only a 
special kind of laborers, but they were also a part of the whole 
social system of the South. Most slaves were ignorant, though 
kind-hearted mistresses and children would teach favorite 
slaves to read and write. They usually had sufficient food, 
but lived in poor and scanty quarters; a two-room house for 
a family of eight or ten negroes was thought generous. The 
slaves had some home life, but the members of a family might 
be sold away from each other. 



SLAVERY 



253 






The slave had little reason for working hard and being 
faithful. There was no promise of higher wages, for he had 
no wages. A fugitive slave was once brought before a 
judge and admitted that he had been well fed, well treated, 
and never punished. " Then why did you run away? " asked 
the judge. The reply was, " Well, massa, de situation am 
vacant! " In other 
words, he ran away 
for the same rea- 
sons that a white 
man would have 
run away; any 
kind of freedom 
was better to him 
than the easiest 
slavery. 

It is not strange 
that slaves were 
sometimes cruelly 
treated. In those 
days prisoners and 
paupers were often 
ill treated. The object of a master was to make his slaves work 
and obey, whether they felt like it or not. If they refused, the 
master or overseer had to flog them or let them be idle. Sen- 
sible masters would not injure the value of a slave by too 
severe punishment. 

204. Abolitionists. — After 1830 the antislavery societies 
and conventions of religious bodies in the South ceased to pro- 
test against slavery, and the attack on it was transferred 
to the North. " Emancipation " usually meant a slow and 
gradual process of setting the slaves free. " Abolition " 
meant setting them free immediately. In 1831 appeared the 
most ardent abolitionist of the time, a young Massachusetts 
printer named William Lloyd Garrison, who founded a news- 
paper called the Liberator. In it he fiercely and often un- 
reasonably attacked slaveholders, whether they were bad 
masters or good masters. " On this subject," said Garrison, 




Old slave huts at the Hermitage Plantation, Savannah, 
Georgia 



254 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 



" I do not wish to think or speak or write with modera- 
tion." 

Three sectional groups of aboHtionists soon appeared: (i) 
Garrison organized a national antislavery society, principally 
of New England people. He was joined by John G. Whittier, 
the poet; Charles Sumner, later a Senator; Wendell Phillips, 
a remarkable orator; Lucretia Mott, a Quakeress; and many 
others. Garrison went so far as to argue that the North ought 
to secede from the Union, so as to get away from what he 
thought was the sin of slavery. His movement was very un- 
popular, the more so because women joined in the meetings 
and made speeches. 

(2) Some of the abolitionists in the middle states broke 
away in 1840 and formed a separate antislavery society. 
Among them was Gerrit Smith of Pctcrboro, New York, a 
wealthy man who gave large tracts of land to freed negroes. 
This group of abolitionists kept up newspapers and meetings 
of their own, and they stood by the Union, but thought it 
ought to be a Union free from slavery. 




THE NATION .S ACT. MAN AUCTION AT THE CM'ITAL. A FREEMAN S«. 
Part of a page in an early antislavery almanac 



(3) Another group of abolitionists appeared in the West, 
especially among settlers from New England. The Western 
Reserve of northern Ohio sent to Congress Joshua R. Gid- 



ABOLITION 255 

dings, who was the first out-and-out abolitionist in Congress. 
Salmon P. Chase became an abolitionist leader; and in the 
northern part of Ohio and Indiana, antislavery men became 
active in the movement. 

205. Abolition in Congress. — All three groups of abo- 
litionists were quick to see that the best place to attack slavery 
was in Congress, and about 1836 they began to send in peti- 
tions asking Congress to do away with slavery in the District 
of Columbia. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina became 
the chief defender of slavery, and he took the ground that 
" slavery was a good, a positive good," and that for any 
member of Congress to say it was wrong was an insult to the 
slaveholders. 

Some of the northern members took that view and united 
with southern members to pass a series of " Gag Resolutions " 
( 1 836-1 844), under which no antislavery petition could be 
read or discussed in Congress. Ex-President John Quincy 
Adams, who had never before been an antislavery man, be- 
came the champion of the right of the abolitionists, or any- 
body else, to hold public meetings, send petitions, and discuss 
slavery in Congress or outside. 

206. Summary. — This chapter describes the American 
people, their numbers, races, and social life, and the system 
of slavery. 

Of the three sections of the United States in 1830, North, 
South, and West, the North was the most thickly settled, 
had the greatest wealth and the greatest variety of business. 
The national population was doubling every twenty-five 
years, and large cities were growing up. The South included 
the three classes of free farmers, slaveholders, and poor whites. 
The West resembled the North. Foreign immigrants began 
to come in by the thousands, especially Irish, Germans, and 
Scandinavians. 

Some of the old national churches divided and some new 
ones appeared. Efforts were made by both Catholics and 
Protestants to spread Christianity to other parts of the world. 
Many communities, brotherhoods, and fraternal orders were 
organized. It was a period of reform movements, especially 



256 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

for temperance and the humane care of prisoners and the 
insane. The punishment of criminals and offenders was still 
cruel, and riots and mobs were frequent. 

Opportunities for free laborers increased, but the hours were 
long and many children were employed. The southern labor 
in the fields and on plantations was done largely by negro 
slaves. Most of them lived poorly and some of them fell into 
the hands of cruel overseers or owners. 

An antislavery movement arose in the North, led by active 
abolitionists, especially William Lloyd Garrison. One or two 
abolitionists appeared in Congress, and John C. Calhoun came 
forward as the principal defender of slavery. An effort was 
made by resolutions of Congress to prevent a discussion of 
the subject in either house. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Garrison, Westward Extension. — MacDonald, Jacksonian De- 
mocracy. — Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, no. 14. — Smith, Parties and Slavery. 

Histories. Dodd, Expansion and Conflict, 50-56, 132-146, 161-168, 
208-229. — Hart, Slavery and Abolition. — MacDonald, From Jefferson 
to Lincoln, ch. iv. — Smith, Parties and Slavery, chs. xix, xx. — Sparks, 
Expansion of Am. People, chs. xxiv, xxxi-xxxiii. — Tappan, England's 
and America's Literature, 286-363. — Turner, Rise of New West, chs. i-iv. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 358, 387-395, 435- 
438, 450. — Harding, Select Orations, nos. 16, 17. — Hart, Contemporaries, 
HI. 151-157, 169-184, IV. §§23-28; Source Book, §§94-101. — James, 
Readings, §§76, 81. — Johnston, Am. Orations, II. 102-122, 219-267. — 
Old South Leaflets, nos. 78-81, 137-141, 148, 180, 195. 

Side Lights and Stories. Bates, Martin Brook. — Cable, Old Creole 
Days. — Carr, Illini (Illinois). — Clemens (Mark Twain), Huckleberry 
Finn. — Dickens, Am. Notes. — Eggleston, Graysons. — Longstreet, Geor- 
gia. — Sedgwick, Hope Leslie. — Smedes, Southern Planter. — Tourgee, 
Button's Inn (Mormons). 

Pictures. Mentor, serial nos. 2, 77, 106, 109. — Sparks, Expansion of 
Am. People. — Wilson, Am. People, IV. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 196) I. What were the sections of the Union about 1830? 2. What 
were the interests and occupations of the North in 1830? 3. What were 
the conditions and occupations of the South? 4. What were the con- 
ditions and occupations of the West? 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 257 

(§ 197) 5- How fast did the population of the United States increase? 
6. What were the principal cities in 1830? 

(§ 198) ?• How and why did immigration start up? 8. How were the 
immigrants distributed? 9 (For an essay). An immigrant voyage. 

(§199) 10. What churches were brought by the immigrants? 11. How 
were some of the old churches divided? 12. What was the influence of 
the evangelists and other ministers? 13. What was the movement for 
home and foreign missions? 14 (For an essay). Missions to the Sand- 
wich Islands. 

(§ 200) 15. How did secret orders and societies grow up? 16. What 
was the temperance agitation and what did it bring about? 17. What 
improvement was made in the treatment of the insane? 18. What were 
the "communities" and how did they succeed? 19 (For an essay). Life 
at Brook Farm. 

(§ 201) 20. What were ordinary punishments for offenders and crimi- 
nals? 21. How was order kept in the cities? 22. How were the weak and 
dependent often treated? 

(§ 202) 23. What were the occupations, wages, and conditions of wage 
earners? 24. How were slaves used outside of farm work? 25. Why was 
slavery profitable? 

(§ 203) 26. How did slaves live under usual conditions? 27 (For an 
essay). On a cotton plantation; or a rice plantation. 

(§ 204) 28. What were emancipation and abolition? 29. What was 
the Garrison group of abolitionists? 30. What was the middle state 
'^roup? 31. What was the western group? 32 (For an essay). Ac- 
counts of abolition meetings. 

(§ 205) 33. How did the abolition agitation get into Congress? 34. 
What were the Gag Resolutions? 



HART'S SCH. HIST. — 1$ 



CHAPTER XIX 



NEW PARTIES AND POLITICS (1829-1841) 

207. Revival of Party Spirit. — In 1829 the people in the 
United States were divided on much the same Hnes as in 1793 
(§ 144). Part of the voters expected the federal government to 
be active in opening up the country and aiding the business 
interests. Another part thought that business men could take 
care of themselves, or that whatever was necessary for their 
aid and protection could best be done 1)\- \hf siiu ~. 




The American " clipper ship " The Guide, built at Salem, Massachusetts. Sailed by 
Capt. Horace B. Putnam. Clipper ships were much used from 1840 to 1855 

The shipowners and manufacturers of the New England and 
the middle states felt the need of federal laws favorable to their 
business. Those who were opposed to that policy lived mostly 
in the farming and planting regions, particularly in the South. 
The West had so many needs of its own and such a lively spirit 
that it inclined toward the idea of action by the national 
government. 

258 



ANDREW JACKSON 259 

The older part of the country believed in Hamilton's idea 
that government ought to be carried on by a class of trained 
public men, who could decide on a public policy (§ 143). Those 
who believed in Jefferson's doctrine of the wisdom of the 
people at large, expected the people to find out what they 
wanted for themselves. Many of this group feared to place 
great power in the hands of the President and the members of 
the House and the Senate ; and they were very much afraid of 
the influence of the new President Andrew Jackson. 

208. Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). — Notwithstanding his 
humble beginnings among the rough people of western South 
Carolina, Jackson became a lawyer, a judge, and a well-to-do 
planter in Tennessee. His mansion, which he called " The 
Hermitage," still stands near Nashville. He was twice for a 
short time a Senator of the United States, and he had large 
experience as a commander in the Indian wars, as the defender 
of New Orleans (§ 167), and as a general in the United States 
army. 

In person, Jackson was rather pleasing, tall, spare, well 
dressed, and had a piercing eye. He deserved the nickname 
of " Old Hickory," which his friends gave him because of his 
strength and toughness. He was polite to ladies, and his 
affection for Mrs. Jackson was such that he was ready to 
quarrel with any one who spoke ill of her, or of any other 
lady. Jackson liked to quarrel, and in the early part of his 
life fought two duels. On the other hand he had warm 
friends: Martin Van Buren, the political boss of the state of 
New York, admired him and stood by him; Thomas H. 
Benton, Senator from Missouri, with whom Jackson once had 
a rough-and-tumble fight, became one of his strongest sup- 
porters. 

Jackson was elected President because he seemed to stand 
for the plain people, and especially for the westerners and the 
frontiersmen in the eastern states. He always made up his 
mind quickly, and then stood by his decisions. He had the 
frontier feeling that business men were too powerful in politics, 
and that the federal government ought not to be mixed up 
with them. The United States Bank with its capital of 



26o 



NEW PARTIES AND POLITICS 



$35,000,000 seemed to some shrewd observers to be a public 
danger; and Jackson shared in that feeling. 

209. The Triumvirs. — Among other great statesmen of 
Jackson's time perhaps the ablest was John Quincy Adams. 
He came back into Congress after his defeat for reelection as 
President (§ 194), but was never a party leader. The most 
famous statesmen of this epoch were Clay, Webster, and 
Calhoun, all of whom bitterly opposed Jackson. In recent 

\cars they are often called 
the "Triumvirs"; that is, 
the three great leaders. 

Henry Clay of Kentucky 
was a westerner, and he had 
I he natural ability to make 
friends by what we call 
" personal magnetism." For 
nearly forty years he was a 
great figure in Congress, and 
six times he was Speaker 
of the House. Clay was 
a strong debater and was 
called the " Great Pacifi- 
cator," because several times 
(luring his career he drew 
up compromises which were 
adopted by Congress to dis- 
pose of vexing questions. 
Daniel Webster first came to Congress from New 
Hampshire in 181 3; later he moved to Massachusetts, and 
for. several long periods was a Senator from that state. 
Webster had a massive head which people used to com- 
pare with the Great Stone Face up in the White Moun- 
tains. He was the finest public speaker of his time, 
having a superb voice and a choice of simple and telling 
words that carried his meaning to every hearer. Webster 
made many warm personal friends but somehow never 
was popular outside of New England, perhaps because 
he was careless and extravagant in money matters. He 




Daniel Webster, 1782-1852 



GREAT STATESMEN 26l 

joined with Clay in building up an anti-Jackson party, and to 
the end of his hfe vainly hoped that he might be President. 

John C. Calhoun was the most acute and sharp-witted of the 
three men. He was a planter and slaveholder in South Caro- 
lina, and therefore he was one of the most eager members of 
Congress in favor of the bank and tariff acts of 1 8 1 6 (§§ 1 84, 1 85) , 
expecting that the South would set up factories with slave 
labor. When it proved that the plan was hopeless, he turned 
sharply around, opposed the tarifif, and became the great 
defender of slavery. He was at first a personal friend and 
supporter of Jackson, but in 1830 he quarreled with the 
President and became a strong anti-Jackson man. He could 
not bear to walk in party harness, and during the latter part of 
his life was a sort of independent in politics. He was always a 
bold and far-seeing statesman, who loved the Union but felt 
that the Union must not come into conflict with the interests 
of the South. 

210. The Spoils System (1829-1837). — -As soon as Jackson 
became President he began to use his power of removal from 
office to get rid of the Adams men whom he found in the 
government service. All the minor officials were appointed 
by the heads of departments and could be removed by them 
(§ 151). The pay of most of these people was small, but govern- 
ment places were supposed to be for life. 

A New York politician, Marcy, about this time said in a 
public speech that in politics " to the victor belong the spoils 
of the enemy." He meant that whenever the political party 
that was " out " defeated the political party that was " in," 
the public officials ought to be dismissed, so that their places 
might go to the friends of the victors. Many Americans had 
come to believe in " rotation in office"; that is, that elective 
officers and even clerks and other minor employees of the 
states and the national government ought to serve only for a 
short time. 

Jackson did not accept this doctrine of rotation of minor 
offices; but his friends persuaded him that the service was full 
of dishonest and incompetent men. Martin Van Buren, who 
was a master of party politics, became his Secretary of State. 



262 NEW PARTIES AND POLITICS 

Whenever Jackson or his secretaries dismissed an official, they 
appointed their own friend or a friend of their friends to the 
vacancy. This is what is called " the introduction of the 
spoils system into the national civil service." 

The Jackson workers throughout the Union expected a 
change; and a pilgrimage of office seekers descended upon 
Washington. Many were editors of newspapers that had 
favored Jackson. When the applicants were strangers to 
him, Jackson had to take the advice of the heads of his de- 
partments, or of a group of special friends commonly called 
the " Kitchen Cabinet." Some of his choices were very bad, 
particularly Swartwout, collector of the port of New York, 
who stole more than a million dollars. Jackson dismissed 
about a third of the men holding important offices; and 
probably more than half the clerks, postmasters, and custom- 
house employees w'ent out of office in the same fashion. 
Thenceforward for fifty years all the officers and employees of 
the government, from heads of departments to scrub women, 
were in danger of removal whenever a new President came in. 

211. Jackson and the Bank (1829-1836). — The largest 
business institution in the country was the United States 
Bank (§ 185), a big, well managed concern, which paid good 
dividends. The federal government deposited its funds in 
the bank, which therefore always held several millions of gov- 
ernment money. The head of the bank was Nicholas Biddle 
of Philadelphia, the great financial magnate of that period. 

Jackson, though well accustomed to doing business with 
banks, felt uneasy: he thought the states ought to control all 
the banking business; he feared that the United States Bank 
sooner or later would go into politics and try to control 
elections. He therefore vetoed a bill to continue the bank 
after the expiration of its charter in 1836. On this issue Clay 
was nominated for the presidency (1832) by the opponents of 
Jackson, who called themselves National Republicans. Jack- 
son was easily reelected President over Clay. 

Feeling that the people were behind him, the next year 
Jackson stopped depositing public money in the bank. The 
bank's friends fought as well as they could; but when the 



GREAT ISSUES 263 

federal charter expired in 1836, the bank had to give up busi- 
ness as a government concern. 

212. Tariff and Nullification (1829-1832). — Another storm 
center in poUtics was the tariff, which was very unpopular in 
the South (§ 194). The planters did not make cotton goods 
but sold their raw cotton to the manufacturers, and were 
convinced that the tariff made them pay higher prices for what 

"they bought. A new tariff in 1832 was somewhat lower, but 
was still protective. 

South Carolina headed a movement against the tariff, and 
John C. Calhoun worked out the " nullification doctrine," that 
a protective tariff, not being for the " general welfare," was 
against the Constitution ; the tariff acts were contrary to the 
higher law (§ 116) and were therefore no law at all. Calhoun 
and his friends hoped that the President would take their side, 
but Jackson was not the man to admit that any state could 
ignore an act of Congress; and at a public dinner in 1830, 
he offered the toast, " Our Federal Union: it must be 
preserved." 

In 1832 South Carolina passed a solemn Nullification Ordi- 
nance, which declared that the tariff acts "are unauthorized 
by the Constitution of the United States . . . and are null, 
void, and no law, nor binding upon this state, its officers, or 
citizens." 

213. Union and State Rights (1830-1833). — The discus- 
sion on this question of state rights led to a famous debate 
between Senator Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Web- 
ster (1830). Hayne asserted that the Constitution was a 
"compact" between the states of the Union; that is, an 
agreement, like a contract made between persons. He con- 
sidered that the federal government was not an independent 
government at all, but sirnply an " agent " to carry out the 
will of the states. 

This doctrine, if pushed far enough, would include the right 
of a state to " secede "; that is, to leave the Union altogether. 
Neither Senator Hayne nor Calhoun went into that question; 
all they said was that a state could "nullify" a particular 
act of Congress, and still remain in the Union. 



264 NEW PARTIES AND POLITICS 

Webster took the opposite ground: he held that the Con- 
stitution is " the people's Constitution, the people's govern- 
ment, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable 
to the people." He insisted that the Supreme Court of the 
United States had the right to decide whether any act of 
Congress was according to the higher law of the Constitution, 
and argued that the Union was not an agent, but a government 
which no state could alter or disregard. 

Jackson favored sending troops to Charleston. On the 
suggestion of Henry Clay, a compromise tariff was passed 
(1833), by which the duties were slowly to be reduced to a 
point where they would give very little protection to American 
manufacturers. This was a victory for South Carolina, be- 
cause the policy of protection to manufacturers was thus given 
up for the time by the federal government. It was also a vic- 
tory for Jackson and Webster, because they called public 
attention to their point that the Union was superior to the 
states. It was a happy settlement of a contest that might 
have broken the Union in two. 

214. Democratic and Whig Parties (1832-1841). — Jackson 
was now known throughout the land to be a supporter of the 
Union, a foe to the United States Bank, and no special friend 
of protective tariffs. When Congress tried to spend federal 
funds on internal improvements (§ 186), Jackson came out 
against that policy, because he was sure that a good part 
of the money would be spent for roads and canals of only 
local benefit. And the states were quite able to build 
canals for themselves, as New York and others were doing 
(§§186,229). 

When Jackson believed in anything, he expected his friends 
in Congress to do the same. Those who accepted his princi- 
ples on the bank, the tariff, and internal improxements, at 
first called " Jackson men," gradually drew together into a 
new party, the Democratic party, founded on the idea that 
the federal government ought not to use its power in aid of 
private business. When Jackson's second term was expiring, 
he put forward his friend. Van Buren, who was easily elected 
President by that party (1836), and stood by its principles. 



TEXAS 



265 



The an ti- Jackson men, of whom Clay and Webster were the 
strongest, insisted on the three things which Jackson most 
opposed : a national bank, a high tariff, and internal improve- 
ments. In 1834 those who thought as these leaders did gave 
themselves the name of Whigs, and soon became a great 
national party. The principles of the 
two parties were very much like those 
of the old Federalist party and the old 
Jeffersonian Republican party (§ 144). 

Both parties spread throughout the 
Union, and remained rivals in state 
and national politics for the next 
twenty-five years. Both parties set up 
newspaper organs and national and 
state party committees, and worked 
to bring out the vote when elections 
came. Both parties used the offices, 
whether state, city, or national, to help 
them in their campaigns. Both parties 
adopted platforms and called upon the 
voters to save the country from " the 
other fellows." 

215. Texas (1821-1837). — After 
Mexico became independent in 1821 
(§192), Moses Austin of Connecticut 
secured a land grant from Mexico in the 
district of Texas. Under the leadership 
of his son, Stephen F. Austin, several 
thousand Americans went down there, 
mostly from the southern states, many 
of them taking slaves. The Mexican 
government was both weak and unfair, 
and in 1836 the Texans, following the example of the American 
Revolution, declared themselves independent. 

The Mexican President, General Santa Anna, came over 
with a little army to subdue them; and his soldiers brutally 
killed in cold blood a few prisoners made at the fort of the 
Alamo (now in the city of San Antonio) and about 300 more 




Flags of the Republic of 
Texas. The first two flags 
were in use in 1836. The 
third flag was adopted Jan- 
uary 25, 1839 



266 NEW PARTIES AND POLITICS 

taken near the post of Goliad. A few weeks later the Texans, 
under General Samuel Houston, defeated and captured Santa 
Anna (1835), and set an example of a generous spirit by 
granting him his life. 

The Texans at once asked the United States to take them 
into the Union, and Jackson would have been willing; but there 
were strong objections from northerners who did not want 
more slaveholding territory. All that was done was to 
recognize Texas as an independent republic, with its " lone- 
star flag " (1837). For eight years it made its own laws, and 
negotiated treaties with other countries. 

216. Commercial Panic of 1837. — From 1829 to 1837 was 
a time of great speculation throughout the country. Since 
anybody could buy public lands in any quantity for $1.25 an 
acre, vast sums were spent in the purchase of lands, with the 
hope of reselling them for higher prices. In two years 
$40,000,000 poured into the Land Office, not a penny of which 
was needed for government expenses. This money was depos- 
ited in state banks, which lent a good part of it to speculators. 

Something had to be done with the accumulated money, 
and Jackson, much against his will, agreed to a Deposit Act 
to distribute $36,000,000 among the states. When this money 
was required from the banks in 1837, they called in part of 
the money lent to business men. When this money could 
not be collected, suddenly the whole country was in the midst 
of the worst commercial panic that it has ever seen. Probably 
four out of every five of the business men, however rich, 
could not raise money and became bankrupt. All the banks, 
even the soundest, " suspended specie payments"; that is, de- 
clined to redeem their own circulating notes in specie (§ 185). 
The importing houses stopped bringing in goods; hence the 
import duties fell off, and the linited States government could 
not pay its bills without borrowing money. 

The fields, mines, factories, buildings, ships, and steamboats 
were not destroyed, and the main loss was in the breaking up 
of business connections, and the lowering of the high ^•alues 
which had been put upon property and land. In a few years 
the country was more prosperous than ever. 



PANIC OF 1837 267 

217. Summary. — In this chapter we see how, under the 
powerful influence of Andrew Jackson and other great states- 
men, two new political parties were founded; and we learn of 
the decisions that were made upon the great questions of the 
civil service, banks, tariff, and nullification. 

The old division of the people between those who favored 
vigorous government and those who would rather rely on 
individual effort was repeated. Jackson was set in his ways 
and prone to hate those who opposed him ; yet he was a great 
figure. Besides him, the great statesmen were John Quincy 
Adams, Clay, Webster, and Calhoun. 

Almost without knowing it, Jackson introduced the spoils 
system into the federal government, by treating the ofifices 
as rewards to the party workers. The United States Bank 
was opposed by him because he thought it what we should call 
a dangerous monopoly. Nullification was opposed because 
the nullifiers set themselves against his authority, and because 
Jackson was naturally in favor of a strong central government. 
In the nullification controversy Webster made a famous argu- 
ment for the rights and powers of the Union. On the tariff 
Jackson was satisfied with the compromise of 1833, which 
gave up the system of high protection for American industries. 

The Whig and Democratic parties were formally organized, 
the principal issues between them being the bank, the tariff, 
and internal improvements. 

Jackson was not able to bring about the annexation of 
Texas. Speculation and the so-called Deposit Act for turning 
the surplus over to the states, led the way to a commercial 
panic in 1837. Business was for a time fearfully injured, but 
after a few years the country recovered its prosperity. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Slavery and Aholition. — MacDonaXd, Jacksoniayi Democ- 
racy. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 202, 203. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 392-426, 432-435. — Elson, Side Lights, 
I. chs. xi, xii. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., chs. xi-xv. — Garrison, West- 
ward Extension, chs. vi, vii. — Hart, Slavery and Aholition, ch. xx, — 
MacDonald, From Jefferson to Lincoln, 44-62, 82-88. — Wilson, Division 
and Reunion, §§ 7, 12-51, 57, 58. 



268 NEW PARTIES AND POLITICS 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 24, 30. — Caldwell and Persinger, 
Source Hist., 354-358, 361-377. — Hart, Contemporaries, III. 158-164, 
185, 186; Patriots and Statesmen, IV. 135-341 passim. — Johnston, Am. 
Orations, I. 233-334, IV. 202-237. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, 
nos. 44-68, 81-95; Select Docs., nos. 44-65. 

Side Lights and Stories. Barr, She Loved a Sailor. — Brown, Andre^u 
Jackson. — Davis, Letters of J. Downing (Satire). — Dillon, Patience of 
John Morland (Jackson). — Hapgood, Daniel Webster. — Kendall, Atito- 
biography. — Munroe, With Crockett and Bowie (Te.xas). — Otis, Philip 
of Texas. — Quincy, Figures of the Past. — Scollard, Ballads of A m. 
Bravery, 48-53. 

Pictures. Mentor, serial no. 127. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People. 
— Wilson, Am. People, IV. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 207) I. What was the main division of party sentiment in 1829? 
2. How did the different sections look on federal aid to business? 3. How 
did the East look on popular government? 

(§ 208) 4. What sort of man was Andrew Jackson? 5. How did he 
look on the business questions of his time? 6 (For an essay). Account 
of a visit to Andrew Jackson. 

(§ 209) 7. Who were the principal national statesmen from 1830 to 
1850? 8 (For an essay). Account of Henry Clay; or Daniel Webster; 
or John C. Calhoun. 

(§ 210) 9. How did President Jackson deal with appointments to 
office? 10. What is meant by "the spoils system"? 11. What is ro- 
tation in office? 12. What was the Kitchen Cabinet? 13. What effect 
did Jackson's appointments have on the public service? 

(§211) 14. What was the relation of the government to the United 
States Bank? 15. What did Jackson think of the bank? 

(§ 212) 16. Why was the South opposed to a protective tariff? 17. 
How did South Carolina express disapproval? 18. What was nullification? 

(§213) 19. What was Hayne's theory of the Constitution? 20. What 
was Webster's doctrine? 21. How was the nullification controversy 
settled? 

(§ 214) 22. Why did Jackson object to federal internal improvements? 
23. How was the Jacksonian Democratic party founded? 24. How was 
the Whig party founded? 25. What were their political methods? 

(§ 215) 26. How was Texas settled by Americans? 27. How did the 
Texans secure their independence? 28. How did the United States look 
on the new republic of Texas? 

(§ 216) 29. How did the public lands affect the business of the country? 
30. What was the Deposit Act? 31. What was the cause of the com- 
mercial panic of 1837? 



CHAPTER XX 
NEW BUSINESS METHODS (1829-1860) 

218, Land (1830-1860). — From 1830 to i860 was a good 
time for wide-awake men and women. The poor settler in the 
backwoods might live to see his farm worth thousands of 
dollars. The day laborer often came to be the owner of a great 
factory. The small dealer might become a wholesaler or 
a banker. 

One of the reasons for this prosperity was the abundance of 
good farming land. It was the policy of the federal govern- 
ment to get rid of its lands as soon as possible. Therefore, 
bounty lands were given to soldiers of the various wars. 
Down to 1850 one section, or square mile, in every thirty-six 
was turned over to each new state for the support of schools; 
after that time each got two sections. Vast areas were given 
to states as funds for internal improvements, especially canals; 
this avoided the objection to Congress's voting money for the 
purpose. 

It was felt that the settlers were rather neglected by this 
policy, and therefore a Preemption Act was passed (1841) by 
which the first chance at the lands was reserved for them. 
Any head of a family, widow, single man, or single woman 
over twenty-one years of age, might once in a lifetime buy 
160 acres of land for $200. A strong and plucky man, with 
a few head of stock, and provisions to last during the first 
winter, could support himself and family almost from the start. 
This generous policy drew hundreds of thousands of natives 
and foreign immigrants into the West. In one year (1854) 
430,000 foreigners landed at the ports of the United States, 
and they hastened the growth of new states like Missouri, 
Iowa, and Minnesota. 

269 



270 NEW BUSINESS METHODS 

219. Northern Farming (1830-1860). — In every northern 
and western state the landowning farming famihes at this 
period made up the most numerous class. They kept horses 
for farm work, and cattle and hogs, which gave the families a 
milk and meat diet; and their surplus butter and cheese found 
a ready sale. Happy the boy or girl who could sit at a farmer's 
table and share in its chicken, turkey, beef, and ham; its 
potatoes, squashes, beets, and corn; its fruit, preserves, buck- 
wheat cakes, mince pies, maple sirup, and cream gravy! 

Along the northern belt from Vermont to Minnesota, wheat 
was a valuable crop; wheat and flour were easily carried to the 
seacoast for shipment, by canals, railroads, and the Mis- 
sissippi River. Immense quantities of hay were put up for 
the winter. Tobacco was a good crop in Connecticut and 
Pennsylvania. Indian corn could be grown anywhere, but the 
corn belt of central Illinois and Iowa proved to be especially 
rich. The hogs, cattle, and horses enriched the land, and the 
surplus animals could always be turned into cash. 

The northern farmers were happy and wide-awake. They 
had many churches, literary societies, Sunday schools, acad- 
emies, books, and newspapers; they made journeys, and 
laid by money from >ear to year. 

220. Southern Farming. — The farming conditions of the 
border states (§ 196) were much like those of the North; but 
in the "cotton states" the whole system was different. 
Many food crops could be grown there to advantage, and 
immense quantities of corn were grown; but it was cheaper 
to raise cotton and buy part of the food from the outside. 
Quantities of salt meat and hog products were bought from 
the packing houses of the northwestern states. 

Cotton held large value in small bulk. Banks and cotton 
buyers would adv^ance money to the planter on the security 
of the next crop that he was going to raise; and when his 
crop was sold and his debts paid, he had little left for the 
next year and was soon in debt again. Hence many planters 
could not get ahead, and the big planters who made the most 
money could buy out their poor neighbors, who migrated 
westward or were pushed back on poor land. 



FARMING AND MANUFACTURING 



271 



221. Manufactures (1815-1860). — From the beginning of 
the colonies, manufactured goods were made in the home 
(§§ 82, 178), or else in small workshops, such as the blacksmith's 
or tanner's, employing a few men. After 1830 most of the 
goods produced in the United States were made by bringing 
together workmen and workwomen into buildings and groups 
of buildings. There, aided by machines, they produced goods 
on a large scale, intended for sale far and wide (§ 183). 

This so-called " factory system " of making textiles was 
not possible until the invention of machines, first for spinning 
thread and then for weaving cloth. Shortly before the Revo- 
lution, an Englishman named Hargreaves invented the "spin- 
ning jenny," which 
would twist a thread 
out of flax, or wool, 
or cotton; then Ark- 
wright invented a 
spinning frame, and 
Cartwright invented 
a power loom which 
would weave such 
threads into cloth. 
These machines were 
introduced into the 
United States about 
the year 1790. 

Some factories ran by water power; but steam engines were 
improved (§ 177) and could be used to advantage near cheap 
wood or coal. Under the protective tariff of 1816 and later 
(§212) the American mills had an advantage; and after a 
lower tariff was passed in 1846, they were still able to hold 
their own and increase. By i860 there were over 2000 cotton 
and woolen mills, turning out a product worth nearly 200 
million dollars every year. 

The building of machines and railroads caused every branch 
of iron manufacture to flourish. Raw iron is made in a fur- 
nace by mixing iron ore, limestone, and a fuel, which for a 
long time was charcoal. Air is forced in by a blower; the 




Arkwright's first spinning frame. This machine made 
a harder and stronger thread than the " jenny " 



272 NEW BUSINESS METHODS 

intense heat causes the Hmestone to combine with the earthy 
part of the ore and leaves Hquid iron, which is then run off into 
bars about two and a half feet long, called " pigs." About 
1840 it was found that anthracite (hard coal) could be used 
instead of charcoal; and a little later the Clay Furnace in 
western Pennsylvania was the first to use bituminous or soft 
coal for the same purpose. The cheap fuel made pig iron 
cheap. Nowadays coke made from soft coal is the usual fuel. 

Cheap pig iron gave business to the rolling mills, which 
melted the pig iron and worked it over in a special furnace into 
lumps of tough wrought iron, which were then rolled into bars, 
or wire, or railroad iron. Cheap wrought iron helped the 
manufacture of hardware, tools, axes, nails, and the parts of 
looms and engines. 

222. Mining. — Soft coal had been mined in a small way in 
western Pennsylvania for many years, and now the magnifi- 
cent hard coal deposits of eastern Pennsylvania came into use. 
Bituminous or soft coal was eventually found in almost every 
state south of the Great Lakes. Steam engines made it pos- 
sible to keep deep mines free from water. Little tramways 
were built in the mines, and some of them ran a few miles to 
a canal or a railroad. Girls never worked in the mines, but 
many thousands of boys were employed. 

In course of time rich iron mines were found near Lake 
Superior (about i860), from which the ore could be shipped 
down to Lake Erie. To meet the ore, coal was brought to 
such towns as Erie and Cleveland, which grew into cities. 
Pittsburgh shared in this prosperity. 

The first gold miners in the Rocky Mountains and in Cali- 
fornia worked " placers "; that is, the deposits of gold-bearing 
gravel in the beds of streams. They would build a flume of tim- 
ber to carry the water around the bed of the stream, and then 
could dig down to the bed rock where they found gold dust and 
nuggets. Within five years after the discovery of gold, most of 
the placers were worked out, and miners began to follow back to 
find the quartz veins from which the gold had been washed. 
This required machinery and underground work. There were 
also hydraulic mines, in which great banks of earth contain- 



MINING AND LABOR 273 

mg a small amount of gold were washed out by streams of 
water under very high pressure. 

223. Labor Unions (1830-1850). — A new class of foreign 
wage laborers built railroads and canals, and helped to operate 
factories and workshops. Local trades unions arose soon after 
the Revolution, but their members were looked upon by 
employers and courts almost as criminals. In 1827 the first 
association of mechanics' unions was formed. In 1834 came 
the first attempt to unite the trades unions of the cities into 
a national organization. The labor men began to put up 
candidates for office, and in some districts elected members of 
the legislature and Congressmen. They were much interested 
in free schools and cast their votes for those who would give 
better opportunities to their children. They objected to child 
labor, for four out of ten of the workers in cotton and woolen 
mills were under seventeen years of age. 

An early purpose of the unions was to secure shorter hours 
of labor. Ten hours w^as fixed on as a sufficient day's work, 
and in 1840 President Van Buren made the rule that ten hours 
should be the working day in the government navy yards and 
arsenals. It was many years before that schedule was ac- 
cepted by private employers, and many more years before 
working women and children were properly protected. 

The country was full of work. The stage lines, steamboats, 
and railroads wanted clerks and bookkeepers; the mills and 
factories needed foremen and skilled mechanics. Sailors and 
fishermen numbered thousands. The domestic servants in- 
cluded many farmers' daughters who took employment as 
" hired girls " in the neighborhood. Intelligent young men 
and women in the country and villages found work as school 
teachers, though the pay was but a few dollars a week for a 
few months in the year. 

224. Inventions. — The making of machinery was aided by 
the liberal patent laws of the United States. Any person who 
thinks out a new device for doing things in a way which no- 
body has thought of before, can file a description of his inven- 
tion in the Patent Office at Washington. If the experts in 
that office decide that he is the first discoverer of this method 

hart's sch. hist. — 16 



274 



NEW BUSINESS METHODS 



or machine, they grant him a patent, which gives him for 
a term of years (now seventeen) the sole right to make and 
sell his invention. Up to i860, 43,000 such patents had been 
issued. 

Among them were many for improxements on the steam 
engine and for other machinery, such as the power wood 
planer, a massive machine which could take in a rough board 
at one end, and turn it out at the other planed, tongued and 
grooved, and ready to lay as flooring. A very useful machine 
was Hoe's printing press, which made rapid printing possible. 
Till 1839 pictures of persons and things could be made only 

by drawings. Then a 
F r e n c h m a n n a m e d 
Daguerre perfected a 
method of taking a picture 
by letting the sunlight fall 
upon a copper plate, cov- 
ered with a film of silver 
salt; and these "daguerreo- 
types " were \er\' good pic- 
tures. From this it was a 
short cut to better metii- 
ods of photography, by 
which pictures were repro- 
duced on prepared paper. 
This proved to be a very 
useful dex'ice. 

In a country as large as the United States, it took a long 
time to carry news. But in 1836 Samuel F. B. Morse dis- 
covered the electric telegraph. He worked a "circuit breaker" 
at one end of a wire, and the electric current in the wire set in 
motion a little machine at the other end, the vibrations of 
which could be read. Eight years later Morse sent his first 
message to a distance. Fourteen years later still (1858) an 
electric cable was laid by Cyrus Field under the sea from 
America to Europe. The telegraph not only carried swiftly 
the news of the day; it was also used by business men and 
families. 




Vt^^S^^SSSSK^'^'^f^' 



An early daguerreotype. (The author is on 
the left) 




INVENTIONS 275 

225. Household Inventions. — Down to 1830 many well- 
to-do farmers and village families made their own butter, 
cheese, apple butter, vinegar, -soap, 
candles, crackers, yeast, maple sugar, 
hams, bacon, and dried beef; spun, 
dyed, and wove their own cloth; 
wove their own carpets and rugs; 
knit their own stockings; made 
their own shirts; and did all the 
washing and laundry work at home. 
Much of this work ceased when 
goods were cheaply produced in 

factories (§221). At the same time Howe's first sewing machine 

new inventions lightened the labor of the house and farm. 

The most convenient of these was friction matches. Im- 
agine living when the only way to get a light was to take up a 
live coal from a fireplace, or to strike a steel on a flint to make 
a spark, which was caught in carefully prepared tinder. Up to 
1840 all the cooking in the country was done over open fires, 
in brick ovens, or in the " Dutch oven " of tin, set up against 
the fire. The invention of iron cook stoves wonderfully re- 
duced the labor of the housewife. The drudgery of endless 
hand sewing was relieved when Elias Howe made his sewing 
machine (patented 1846), with its ingenious idea of putting 
the eye of the needle near the point instead of in the shank, 
and locking the thread underneath the cloth. 

In place of the old-fashioned tallow candles, several kinds of 
oil lamps were introduced. In the cities, gas works were built 
and the gas lighted the streets and was used also in houses and 
factories. 

A very useful discovery was the making of waterproof goods 
out of a gum found in the forests of South America, and com- 
monly called rubber. But rubber was too soft for most uses, 
till Goodyear found (1844) that if mixed with sulphur it would 
harden, and could be molded into useful shapes. 

For centuries the world had longed for a drug which would 
make people insensible to pain for a brief time, and several 
scientific men, physicians, and dentists had experimented. 



276 NEW BUSINESS METHODS 

Several men about the same time discovered that a liquid called 
" ether '' threw off a gas which could be inhaled and would 
make a patient unconscious, so that surgical operations could 
be performed without his knowing it. Dr. Crawford W. Long 
of Georgia was the first to use it, but Dr. Morton of Boston 
first made it of practical value. 

226. Farm Inventions. — Till 1830 all the farm work was 
still done by men and animals just as in colonial times (§ 53). 
Grass was cut with a scythe, and grain with a sickle or cradle; 
and grain was threshed with a flail. Then Cyrus McCormick 
and others invented the horse reaper for grain, and horse 
rakes and horse mowing machines for hay. These lightened 
some of the severest labors of the field. Next came the thresh- 
ing machine driven by horse or steam power. A third impor- 
tant farm invention was skillfully shaped plows which turned 
the ground at just the right angle. 

These various machines were about as important for the 
North and West as the cotton gin (§ 190) was for the South. 
With them the same number of farm workers could raise and 
handle two or three times as much as before. Other machines 
that proved very helpful to the farmer were cultivators, seed 
drills, and rotary harrows, and churns that could be run by dog 
power or water power. 

Few of these machines were adapted for the South. Im- 
proved tools and machines were not of much use on the 
plantations because slaves could not be taught to be careful. 
However, the cotton gins were much improved, and steam 
power was used for pressing and baling cotton. 

227. Organization of Business. — Farming, manufacturing, 
and mining were all aided by improvements in the method of 
doing business. Corporations (§ 142) were formed for all sorts 
of purposes, especially to build railroads and run steamers. 
The banks so increased that by i860 there were about 1500; 
but the currency was poor, because many counterfeit, worth- 
less, and doubtful bank notes were afloat. 

The profits of these companies and of private business men 
made a class of rich men. John Jacob Astor of New York and 
Stephen Girard of Philadelphia were the first millionaires. In 



BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION 



277 



New York and other large cities goods were sold in quanti- 
ties at wholesale ; and many country storekeepers every year 
took long journeys to St. Louis, or New Orleans, or New York, 
to buy goods from the wholesalers, for at that time there were 
no traveling salesmen. Besides the lively internal trade, 
foreign commerce was brisk. The imports and exports of 
goods, taken together, amounted to 300 million dollars in 1836 
and 680 millions in i860. 

228. Commerce and Transportation. — A large part of this 
trade was carried on the American " clipper ships," which 
were very fast and handy sailing vessels (page 258). They 
took away cotton, breadstuffs, fish, timber, and some cotton 
cloth ; and they brought back luxuries, fine cloths, iron wares, 
machinery, and many other things. 

In 1840 the Cunard Steamship Company put on the first 
regular line of ocean steamers (§ 177) to run from Liver- 




A fleet of New-York-to-Llverpool mail steamers, about 1855. Side-wheel steamers of this 
period were equipped with sails 



pool to Boston, Then German steamers began to run from 
Bremen to Baltimore; and from various other European ports 
steamers crossed to Philadelphia, New York, and southern 



278 



NEW BUSINESS METHODS 




ports. Congress voted cash aids to Americans who would 
build competing steamship Hnes; the federal government at 

one time paid more than a 
million dollars a year for 
the purpose. 

After California was an- 
nexed (1848), steamer lines 
wxre put on from Atlantic 
ports to the eastern side of 
the isthmuses of Panama 
and Nicaragua; and others 
from the western side up 
the Pacific coast to San 
Francisco. The Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company ran 
regular steamers from San 

Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), 1835-19x0 p^.^ncisCO tO China. 

The river steamers of the interior had high-pressure engines 
and weak boilers, and many of them were blown up or burned, 
or struck snags and went down in deep water. To j:)il()t them 
became a profes- ^ 

-^ cf: 



sion, and Mark 
Twain, the famous 
American writer, 
began his active 
life as one of those 
pilots. 

In 1 85 1 the rate 
of ordinary letter 
postage was re- 
duced to three 
cents, but the post 
office would not 
carry parcels. A young man named Harnden had the happy 
thought of making it a business to carry packages back and 
forth between New York and Boston. This idea grew into 
several regular express companies which would carry anything 
from gold dust to live animals, at so much a pound. 



9 ' P, k UMi 



^S' 

i 




The first expressman, William F. Harnden 



ROADS AND CANALS 279 

229. Roads and Canals (1825-1850). — About 1830, all over 
the North and South and in some parts of the West, compa- 
nies were building so-called " macadam roads," or " pikes," 
carefully drained and covered with broken stone. " Plank 
roads" were frequent on the frontier, and also "corduroy 
roads" made of trunks of trees laid side by side across 
swamps. 

The federal government from 1825 to 1840 built a continua- 
tion of the Cumberland Road (§187), called the National 
Road, from Wheeling, Virginia, to Springfield, Ohio. Other 
sections of the road were built in Indiana and Illinois; but 
after spending $6,000,000 the government left it unfinished 
and turned it over to the states through which it ran. 







^■"""""" "i.ai4«, 



Coach used by Lafayette during his visit to the United States in 1824; now at the 
Wayside Inn, Massachusetts 

From 1825 to 1850 several of the Atlantic coast states tried 
to follow the example of New York by building canals to the 
West. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all finished 
their canals as far as the foot of the Allegheny Mountains; and 
Pennsylvania also built a canal from Pittsburgh to the western 
side of the mountains, and connected the two sections by a set 
of inclined planes provided with tracks over which the canal 
boats could be drawn on trucks. By this route one could 
travel from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in six days — a 
journey now covered by fast trains in eight hours. 

The western states found canal building an easier task, for 
the divides were low between Lake Erie or Lake Michigan and 
the branches of the Ohio River or the Mississippi. Pennsyl- 



28o NEW BUSINESS METHODS 

vania finished a canal from Lake Eric to tlic mouth of the 
Beaver River near Pittsburgh; Ohio built two lines from Lake 
Erie to the Ohio River. Ohio and Indiana built a canal from 
Toledo to the Wabash River; and Illinois finished a canal from 
the mouth of the Chicago River to the Illinois River. 

230. Railroads. — The idea of running cars fitted with 
flanged wheels over parallel tracks goes back to the English 
mines (§ 177). Then the English began to build railroads 
across their country for passengers and freight. 

In 1830 thirteen miles of railroad was opened between Balti- 
more and Ellicott's Mills by the Baltimore and Ohio Company, 
and cars w-ere run by horses. In the same year the first 
steam locomotives in America were used. From that time the 
railroad system spread until in i860 there were 30,000 miles 
actually in operation. 

The first railroads were built in short stretches, so that a 
traveler from Albany to Buffalo changed cars five or six times. 
The early cars were like stagecoaches, but they were soon 
displaced by cars like long boxes with seats on each side of 
the middle aisle. This has become the standard American 
car. 

Though in several European countries at that time the 
railroads were owned by the government, our federal govern- 
ment chartered no railroad company and did not in any way 
control the railroad business. It did, however, make large 
grants of public lands for the construction of railroads in the 
region lying between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi 
River. Among these lines were the Illinois Central and Mobile 
and Ohio Railroads, extending from Chicago to the Gulf, and 
lines radiating from Chicago. The pressure on the national 
government to make internal improvements (§214) ceased for 
some years. 

Many of the state governments gave or lent money to rail- 
road companies, and several of them built short stretches of 
railroad. For example, the present Michigan Central line 
from Detroit to Kalamazoo was constructed and for several 
years was run by the state of Michigan. Counties, cities, 
towns, and townships also voted large sums to bring railroads 



282 NEW BUSINESS METHODS 

near them ; and more than a third of the cost of all the railroads 
built at this time came from public funds. 

By' i860 lines of railroad (broken in places by broad rivers) 
could be followed from central Maine southwest to New 
Orleans; and from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Balti- 
more to most of the western cities as far as the Mississippi 
River. One line reached the Missouri River at St. Joseph. 
Railroads ran all the year, including the winter when canals 
were frozen up; they bridged most of the streams, but crossed 
ordinary highways at grade. Railroad trains were six or seven 
times faster than canal boats and two or three times faster than 
the swiftest mail coaches. 

231. Summary. — This chapter continues the treatment of 
Chapter XVII in its account of the business methods of the 
period, including farming, manufactures, mining, labor ques- 
tions, inventions, and new forms of transportation. 

From 1830 to i860 came wonderful changes in business and 
transportation. New lands were opened up in the West; and 
by the Preemption Act (1841) large portions were reserved for 
actual settlers. Other lands were granted for building rail- 
roads and canals. The northern and western farmers raised 
a variety of crops and animal products, and sold food to the 
South and to foreign countries. The southern planter raised 
corn for food, but his main crop was cotton. 

Laborers began to organize: first the men of one trade in 
one town, then all the trades in a town, then many trades, 
till they had something resembling our modern federations of 
labor unions. The federal government fixed its day of labor 
at ten hours, but factories had much longer hours, even for 
women and children. 

Manufactures were carried on in numerous factories, large 
and small, especially in those for making woolen and cotton 
cloth, and iron. Mines of every sort were opened, especially 
of hard and soft coal, iron ore, and gold in California. 

Business was aided by a multitude of inventions, such as the 
wood planer, the printing press, and the electric telegraph. 
Other inventions, such as matches, sewing machines, oil lamps, 
mowers, and reapers, made home and farm life easier. 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 283 

Business methods were improved through corporations for 
carrying on factories, mines, and railroads, and through an 
organized wholesale trade. Goods were carried abroad in part 
by sailing ships and in part by steamers; steamers along the 
coast and on the Great Lakes and rivers carried an enormous 
traffic. Local business people generally depended on wagon 
roads and canals, till railroads were built. The railroads, aided 
by land grants and local subscriptions, stretched a net of con- 
necting lines over the Union as far as the Mississippi River. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Chadwick, Causes of Civil War, 8. — Hart, Wall Maps, no. 13. — 
Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, nos. 20, 21, 23. — Smith, Parties and Slavery, 62. 

Histories. Bogart, Economic Hist., chs. xiii, xv-xxi. — Brigham, 
From Trail to Railway, chs. iv-x. — Coman, Industrial Hist., chs. vii, 
viii. — • Dodd, Expansion and Conflict, 39-50, 184-206. — Moore, Indus-m 
trial Hist., 299-316, 361-362, 392-422, 448-468. — Smith, Parties and 
Slavery, ch. v. — Southworth, Builders of Our Country, II. ch. xxi. — 
Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, ch. xxiii. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source History, 360, 361, 380-387, 
438-449. — Commons, Doc. Hist, of Am. Industrial Society, II, V, 
VIII. — James, Readings, §§72-75, JJ, 83. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 

147, 157- 

Side Lights and Stories. Baldwin, Flush Times in Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi. — Casson, C. H. McCormick. — Clark, Clipper-Ship Era. — 
Clemens (Mark Twain), Life on the Mississippi. — Glasgow, The De- 
liverance. — Gordy, Am. Leaders and Heroes, ch. xxiii. — Olmsted, Back 
Country; Seaboard Slave States. — Pearson, Am. Railroad Builder. — 
Trowbridge, 5. F. B. Morse. 

Pictures. Bogart, Economic Hist. — Coman, Industrial Hist. — 
Mentor, serial nos. 29, 87. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People. 

QUESTIONS 

(§218) I. Why was it easy for poor people to get on between 1830 and 
i860? 2. What was the public land policy of the federal government? 
3. What was the Preemption Act? 4. What was the condition of im- 
migration in this period? 

(§219) 5. How did the northern farmers live? 6. What made the 
northern farmers prosperous? 

(§ 220) 7. How did the southern farmers live? 

(§ 221) 8. How were manufactured goods made before 1830? 9. How 
did the factory system grow up? 10. What were the principal early in- 



284 NEW BUSINESS METHODS 

ventions for spinning and weaving? 1 1. How did cotton and woolen mills 
grow up? 12. What improvements were made in iron manufacture? 

(§ 222) 13. How was coal mined? 14. What new supplies of iron 
ore were introduced? 15. How was gold mined? 16 (For an essay). In 
a coal mine. 

(§ 223) 17. How did the labor unions grow up and what were their 
aims? 18. What were the opportunities for work in the United States? 

(§ 224) 19. How are patents for inventions issued? 20. What were 
some of the early valuable inventions? 21. How was the electric tele- 
graph invented and improved? 22 (For an essay). Morse's struggles 
over the telegraph. 

(§ 225) 23. How did families care for their own wants? 24. What 
were some early inventions for relieving home labor? 25. What were the 
inventions for light and waterproof? 26. How were anaesthetic drugs 
discovered? 

(§ 226) 27. What were some of the early inventions for relieving farm 
labor? 28 (For an essay). McCormick's struggles to introduce the 
reaper. 

• (§ 227) 29. What improvements were introduced for doing business on 
a large scale? 30. How did large and small merchants carry on their 
business? 

(§ 228) 31. What were the American clipper ships and what did they 
carry? 32 (For an essay). Notable clipper ships. 33. How were ocean 
steamship lines introduced? 34. How was the river steamship business 
carried on? 35. How was the express business begun? 36 (For an 
essay). Harnden's early express. 

(§ 229) 37. How were roads constructed? 38 (For an essay). A trip 
on the National Road. 39. What canal routes were constructed to and 
across the mountains? 40. What were the principal interior canals? 

(§ 230) 41. What were the first railroads? 42 (For an essay). Ac- 
counts of early travel by railroad. 43. What did the federal govern- 
ment do for railroads? 44. What part did the states take in railroad 
building? 45. How far had the railroad lines extended by i860? 



CHAPTER XXI 
WESTWARD EXPANSION (1840-1850) 

232. The Whigs in Power (1840-1842). — In the presidential 
election of 1840 the Democrats put up Van Buren again. The 
Whigs dropped Henry Clay and nominated General William 
Henry Harrison, who was the hero of the first rousing presiden- 
tial campaign. Some Democrats said of Harrison that " he 
was nothing but an old farmer, who ought to sit in his log cabin 
and drink hard cider." The Whigs took up the sneer, and 
arranged monster meetings, sometimes of 50,000 people. In 
their processions they tugged with them log cabins on wheels 
with old farmers drinking hard cider on the porch. The 
Democrats were held responsible for the panic of 1837. In 
the election, consequently, the Whigs carried their candidate 
and also a majority in each house of the next Congress. At 
last they had a chance to manage the national government 
and to parcel out the federal offices. 

A few weeks after Harrison's inauguration in 1841, he died, 
and Vice President John Tyler succeeded him. Tyler was 
really not a Whig and made up his mind not to take orders 
from Henry Clay, who had framed a program for action in 
Congress, including plans for a protective tarifif and a bank. 
When Tyler vetoed Clay's bill for a bank, the Cabinet (except 
Webster) resigned and left the President without a party. He 
spent four years in the vain effort to be a strong President 
without friends in either party. Webster as Secretary of State 
settled a long boundary dispute: he negotiated a treaty with 
Great Britain (1842) by which a disputed triangle of territory 
in northern Maine was divided, and the United States accepted 
the present boundary of the state. 

233. The Northwest (1815-1840). — North of the Ohio 
River the population grew rapidly. The territory of Michi- 

285 



286 



WESTWARD EXPANSION 



gan was ready for statehood. In 1837 it was admitted to the 
Union (26th state) with about 150,000 people (map, page 328). 
The new state received the peninsula of Upper Michigan in 
return for the loss of a strip of territory claimed by Ohio in 
the south. 

After the War of 1812 Astor did not revive his post of Astoria 
(§ 157)- The great fur-trading concern in the far Northwest 
was the Hudson's Bay Company, an English corporation which 
controlled nearly all the trade on the 
Pacific coast north of the Columbia 
River. 

The United States and Great Britain 
were the only two nations that claimed 
Oregon. That name was given to the 
immense region be- 
tween the Rocky 
Mountains and the 
Pacific, as far south 
as the parallel of 42° 
and as far 
north as 
54° 40'. The 
two gov- 
ernments, 
therefore, 
agreed(i8i8) 
that until 
further no- 
tice citizens 

of both countries should be free to tra\el and trade in Oregon. 
Because of the hint to Russia in the Monroe Doctrine (§ 193), 
the Russian government agreed (1824) to make no claim to 
territory south of 54° 40', which is the present southern bound- 
ary of Alaska. 

American fur traders were now exploring almost every 
stream and mountain pass between the Missouri River and the 
Pacific Ocean. The business of collecting furs there was 
carried on by large companies, which fitted out boats and 




A trader bartering for furs. The sticks which the trader holds in 
his hand were given as a kind of money in exchange for the furs 



FUR TRADE 



287 



wagon and pack trains to carry their goods to distant posts, 
where they could trade with the Indians. By 1840 Ameri- 
can fur traders had crossed and recrossed the Great Basin and 
the Sierra Nevada into CaHfornia. Their trappers, mostly 
French or French-Indian half-breeds, searched the most remote 
valleys looking for beaver, mink, fox, and other pelts; and 
there was an immense business in buffalo robes. 

The trappers were a rough set of men. One of the heads of 
a trading post on the upper Missouri River says that some of 
them were quarreling one day, under the influence of drink, 
and threw one of their fellows on the fire, from which he was 
barely rescued alive. 

234. Oregon Trail (1830-1846). — A few American vessels 
went around Cape Horn carrying missionaries and settlers, but 
a shorter and not very difficult way was the overland route, 
which was discovered by the trappers. Between 1830 and 
1835 a young Massachusetts business man named Wyeth hit 




Western trails, fur-producing regions, and trading posts 



on the idea of going out to Oregon overland and starting a 
chain of trading posts there. He made known to the people 
of the East the easy route up the Platte River, to the north- 



288 WESTWARD EXPANSION 

ward of Great Salt Lake, along the upper Snake River, and 
thence across the country to the Columbia. This line of 
travel was called the Oregon Trail. 

The heathen Indians in Oregon attracted the notice of the 
churches of the East. In 1834 the Methodists sent the first 
missionaries across the continent to the Indians; soon after a 
Congregational missionary went out; and in 1840 the Catholics 
sent Father De Smet, who was the first Catholic missionary to 
that region from the United States. 

American and other ships often touched at California, which 
was a distant province of Mexico. Catholic missions for the 
Indians had existed there since 1769; and the ruins of the 
buildings are still among the most beautiful things in Cali- 
fornia. A few Americans settled there to raise cattle and 
catch wild horses. From 1842 to 1846 three explorations were 
made into the far West by John C. Fremont, a young army 
officer. He explored the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, 
followed the Oregon Trail to Oregon, and later crossed the 
Sierra Nevada to California. His accounts of these journeys 
drew public attention both to Oregon and to California. 

At about the same time immigrants began to use the Oregon 
Trail. Dr. Marcus Whitman, who was one of the Congrega- 
tional missionaries in Oregon, grew uneasy lest British settlers 
should come west by the land route from Canada and occupy 
the country. In 1842 he made a bold horseback journey in 
the winter through the Rocky Mountains, partly for business 
of his mission, partly for the purpose of arousing public senti- 
ment concerning Oregon. He came to Washington and saw 
President Tyler. The next summer he joined a party of im- 
migrants to Oregon and went back to his post, where he was 
later massacred by Indians. 

These incidents some years later gave rise to the claim, 
made by Whitman's friends, that he " saved Oregon " from 
being turned over to the British, by stirring up Tyler and 
Webster, who, he supposed, were about to yield it to Great 
Britain. He was also credited with leading a thousand immi- 
grants across the plains to Oregon. Whitman was a brave 
man, one of many who went through hardship and danger to 



OREGON AND THE SOUTHWEST 289 

make Oregon ours; and for that he deserves the gratitude of 
Americans. He did not save Oregon, because Oregon was not 
in danger of being given up. Whitman did not induce the 
government to change its policy, for it had no pohcy unfavor- 
able to Oregon. Nor was he the leader of the immigrants to 
Oregon; they had been brought together without him and 
would have gone to Oregon if he had never lived. 

235. The Southwest and Texas (1828-1844). — In the 
Southwest a direct trade from St. Louis to Santa Fe, the 
capital of the Mexican province of New Mexico, began about 
1828. A portion of the road, called the Santa Fe Trail, is still 
visible in Kansas City and farther west. 

The territory of Arkansas applied for statehood and was 
admitted in 1836 as the 25th state, with 55,000 people. 

When the new Texan Republic was founded in 1836 (§215) 
the Texan government declared that its boundary ran from 
the mouth of the Rio Grande to its source. This would have 
included about half of New Mexico, with the town of Santa Fe 
and a strip of territory between the Nueces River and the Rio 
Grande. Neither of these areas was occupied by Texans, and 
neither had been considered part of Texas by the Spaniards or 
Mexicans. 

The Texans were still anxious to come into the Union, but 
President Van Buren, a northern man, was against them. 
President Tyler, on the contrary, made it one of his main 
objects to annex Texas. A long struggle began in 1843, when 
John Quincy Adams appealed to the North not to allow the 
admission of a new slave state. In 1844 Tyler made Calhoun 
(§ 209) Secretary of State for the express purpose of bringing 
in Texas; but the North was aroused, and many state legisla- 
tures urged their Senators to vote against any such treaty. 
The project failed, and Tyler's scheme seemed hopeless. 

236. Enlargement of the Union (1844-1846). — The presi- 
dential election of 1844 changed both the Oregon and the Texas 
controversy. Clay was the Whig candidate, but was known 
to be against the annexation of Texas. The Democrats 
therefore nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee, who came 
out for the annexation. A campaign watchword of his party 




290 



NEW STATES ±91 

was " Fifty-four Forty or Fight"; that is, they claimed all the 
northwestern territory in dispute with Great Britain. On 
these issues Polk was elected. 

In 1845, Congress, without waiting for Polk's inauguration, 
passed a " joint resolution " (which is the same thing as an 
act) admitting the Republic of Texas as a state of the Union. 
Thus Tyler had the pleasure of offering annexation to the 
Texans. In spite of angry protests from the North, they 
accepted; and in December, 1845, the state entered the Union 
as the 28th state, with 265,000 square miles and 200,000 
people. 

Three other states were admitted within a period of about 
three years. Florida was then a backward region, but state- 
hood had been promised when the territory was annexed in 
1819 (§ 193) and Florida came in, in March, 1845, with 80,000 
inhabitants, as the 27th state. Florida was balanced by the 
free state of Iowa, almost all of whose settlers came from 
northern states. It was admitted in 1846 as the 29th state 
with 100,000 people. To balance Texas, Wisconsin was admit- 
ted as a free state (the 30th) in 1848, with about 250,000 people, 
making a total of 15 free states and 15 slave states. Wisconsin 
included some strong antislavery and abolition settlers from 
the East and from Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. 

It was high time to settle the dispute about Oregon. The 
United States had long admitted that the English had some 
just claims there; and in 1846 a treaty was signed fixing the 
boundary on the parallel of the 49th degree, from the Rocky 
Mountains west to the Gulf of Georgia. Thence the boundary 
followed the Straits of Juan de Fuca to the ocean. The dis- 
puted territory was thus divided into two nearly equal parts. 

237. Mexican War (1846-1848). — Why was Polk so willing 
to accept a boundary south of 54° 40' ? Partly because he had 
made up his mind to take California from Mexico, either for a 
price or by fighting. The United States had a serious griev- 
ance against Mexico, because for many years complaints and 
claims had arisen for injuries to Americans and their property. 
On their side the Mexicans were furious because the United 
States denied that Texas was still a part of Mexico. 

hart's sch. hist. — 17 



292 WESTWARD EXPANSION 

Another grievance was furnished to the Mexicans when Polk 
ordered General Zachary Taylor to march American troops 
south of the Texan settlements and beyond the Nueces River, 
to the Rio Grande. This action was based on the Texan claim 
to all the region east of the Rio Grande (§235). The Mexi- 
cans looked upon Taylor's march as an invasion and attacked 
him north of the river. Polk then declared that Mexico had 
" invaded our country and shed American blood on American 
soil," and Congress declared war. 

The war lasted a year and a half. Mexico put many men 
in the field, but lacked trained officers and soldiers. The 
American armies were skillfully led, first by General Taylor 
and then by General Winfield Scott. After very hard fighting, 
especially at Monterey and Buena Vista in northern Mexico, 
and at Puebla and Contreras near the city of Mexico, the 
forces of the Mexican president. General Santa Anna, were 
completely beaten. 

The Mexicans made no effort to protect New Mexico, which 
was captured without the firing of a shot, by an expedition 
under Colonel Kearny. Part of Kearny's expedition went 
on to California, and with the aid of a little fieet easily took 
that whole vast country. As a result of the war, therefore, 
President Polk annexed the three pieces of territory which he 
coveted: (i) the strip between the Nueces and the Rio Grande; 
(2) New Mexico, through which ran the overland route to 
California; (3) California. 

The beaten Mexicans could do nothing but accept a treaty 
of peace (1848), by which the present southern boundary of 
the United States was fixed, along the Rio Grande as far as 
El Paso. Thence the line ran across to the Gila and Colorado 
rivers, and from the Colorado to the Pacific Ocean. This part 
of the line was changed five years later when the United 
States bought for ten million dollars the " Gadsden purchase " 
south of the Gila River, which completed the present boundary 
line between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. 

Thus from 1845 to 1853 the United States extended the 
national territory from the old boundary at the mouth of the 
Sabine River southward along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico 



MEXICAN WAR 293 

to the Rio Grande; west from that river to the Pacific Ocean; 
and from San Diego Bay northward along the Pacific to Puget 
Sound and the Gulf of Georgia. 

238. Slavery in the New Territories (1846-1848). — The 
act admitting Texas extended the Missouri Compromise line 
of 36° 30' (§ 191) so as to include any states that might be 
formed north of that line in the new territory. The act further 
promised that if the Texans so desired, as many as five states 
might be created out of their state. Polk expected to continue 
the line of 36° 30' between free and slave territory straight 
west, till it struck the Pacific south of San Francisco Bay. 
That would extend the boundary drawn between free and 
slaveholding territory all the way from Delaware Bay to the 
Pacific Ocean. 

The opponents of slavery in the House rallied, and in 1846 
passed the Wilmot Proviso, to the effect that there should be 
no slavery in any Mexican territory that might be secured as 
a result of the war. The Senate did not agree, and though the 
proviso was afterward brought up many times, it was never 
passed. Abraham Lincoln, an antislavery Whig, used to 
boast that he voted forty-two times for the principle of the 
Wilmot Proviso during his two years in Congress (1847-1849). 
Nobody knew whether the new territory was suitable for future 
slave states. After two years of exciting debates, the only act 
passed by Congress concerning the new lands made Oregon a 
free territory (1848). 

The struggle was carried into the presidential election of 
1848, in which Lewis Cass of Michigan, the Democratic can- 
didate, seemed to favor slavery in the new territory. The 
Whigs nominated General Taylor of Louisiana. The aboli- 
tionists, already united in what they called the Liberty party, 
joined with a large body of antislavery Democrats in a new 
Free-soil party, and they nominated Martin Van Buren for 
President. They drew off so many votes that would otherwise 
have gone to Cass that he lost several states on which he had 
counted, and Taylor was chosen President. 

239. Question of California (1848-1850). — When the next 
Congress met, in 1849, it was time to stop the long discussion 



294 WESTWARD EXPANSION 

on annexation, and to settle three serious questions: Did 
Texas extend to the upper Rio Grande north of El Paso? 
Was slavery to be permitted in New Mexico? Was slavery 
to be permitted in California? 

(i) The Texans were very set in their belief that their 
western boundary was the upper Rio Grande, and they vainly 
tried to seize Santa Fe; President Taylor opposed them. 

(2) As for New Mexico, some statesmen, including Henry 
Clay, held that no act of Congress was necessary because the 
region had been made free by Mexico and continued free after 
annexation. Others claimed that somehow the Constitution 
of the United States made this a slaveholding region. 

(3) In California some men digging a mill race on the Ameri- 
can River, sixty miles above Sutter's Fort (now Sacramento), 
in 1848, found some shining yellow grains which proved to 
be gold. They had struck a placer {^222). When the news 
reached San Francisco, hundreds of men left their homes or 
deserted from their ships to rush to the gold region. The next 
year (1849) thousands of "Forty-niners" came from all parts 
of the earth: Englishmen and Germans, South Americans, 
Chinese, and people from the " States," as Californians long 
called the rest of the Union. Large numbers came by sea; 
others crossed overland, suffering terrible hardships in the 
burning deserts and the snows of the Sierra Nevada. 

A few southerners brought slaves, but it was clear that the 
gold seekers would never allow anybody to put slaves into 
the mines, and then take all the gold that those slaves might 
find. In 1849 the Californians held a convention which de- 
veloped a state constitution and also laid down two principles: 

(a) The state must extend from Oregon to Mexico. That 
made impossible any 36° 30' compromise line across California. 

(b) No slaves should be held in California. 

240. Compromise of 1850. — The dispute about slavery in 
California was practically ended, for Congress was clearly 
unable to compel the Californians to change their minds. 
Still Congress had before it the Texas and New Mexico ques- 
tions. Just then two more disputes arose about slavery: (4) 
The old Fugitive Slave Law (§ 191) was not working well and 




Forty-niners panning for gold in California 



296 WESTWARD EXPANSION 

the South wanted a new one. (5) Northern members of Con- 
gress demanded that the slave trade be abolished in the 
District of Columbia. 

Henry Clay, now old but full of fire, set himself to work 
out a compromise that should include and adjust these five 
points. His results were presented in the " Omnibus Bill " 
in which he was backed up by Daniel Webster. Webster took 
the ground that no new law on slavery was needed because 
New Mexico had not the soil and conditions which could 
make slave labor pay; therefore in his famous " 7th of March " 
speech he said, " I would not take pains to reaffirm an ordi- 
nance of nature, nor to rccnact the will of God." 

John C. Calhoun, then a dying man, warned the North that 
they must yield something or the Union would break up. 
JelTerson Davis of Mississippi declared that the South would 
not accept anything less than drawing the compromise line to 
the Pacific, even against the will of California. President 
Taylor, though a southern slaveholder like Clay, was against 
the compromise; but he died in 1850, and was succeeded by 
Vice President Millard Fillmore of New York. 

Congress finally passed the Clay compromise measures 
through b(jth houses, in separate bills, and they were signed by 
President Fillmore: (i) Texas was not allowed to include the 
upper Rio Grande. (2) New Mexico and Utah were organized 
as territories into which owners might take their slaves (map, 
page 318). The expectation was that New Mexico would be- 
come a slave state. (3) California was at once admitted 
(1850) as a free state, the 31st state in the Union, with 92,000 
population. (4) A new Fugitive Slave Law was passed, more 
favorable to the South. (5) The trade in slaves between the 
[district of Columbia and other parts of the Union was for- 
bidden. 

Almost everybody except the abolitionists and extreme 
slaveholders was pleased by this Compromise of 1850, for it 
peacefully ended a long contest. It was called a " finality," 
though it left the following questions unsettled: (i) It said 
nothing about annexing any other slaveholding territory; for 
instance, the Spanish island of Cuba. (2) It provided no slave 



COMPROMISE OF 1850 297 

state to offset California and thus keep up the balance in the 
Senate. (3) It could not stop the abolitionists from their 
effort to arouse the northern people against slavery. 

241. Summary. — This chapter covers the ten years from 
1840 to 1850, particularly the enlargement of the country to 
the southwest through the annexation of Texas, and to the 
northwest by the settlement of Oregon; together with the 
Mexican War, and the settlement of the questions arising from 
the annexation of Texas, New Mexico, and California. 

From 1840 to 1848 there was a seesaw of national parties, 
first Whig, then Democrat, then Whig again. Most of the 
questions in that time arose from the expansion of the country 
and the annexation of territory. First trappers, then traders, 
and then immigrants pushed along the Oregon Trail to the 
Columbia River. In the South great efforts were made to 
annex Texas. The turning point was the election of 1844, 
which brought into the White House President Polk, who 
wanted at the same time to annex Texas, New Mexico, Cali- 
fornia, and Oregon. 

As President, Polk had the opportunity to carry out most of 
this program. He accepted the annexation of Texas which 
had just gone through Congress. He pushed troops down into 
the disputed belt beyond the Nueces River. He forced war 
upon Mexico, on the plea that the Mexicans had begun it; and 
American troops under his direction occupied New Mexico 
and California. He came to an understanding with Great 
Britain, by which the United States retained the most valuable 
part of the disputed territory of Oregon. 

These annexations brought up in Congress the question of 
slavery in the new territories. The Wilmot Proviso, which 
passed the House (1846) but not the Senate, showed that a 
large part of the North was determined to have no new slave 
states. 

The discovery of gold in California (1848) settled the question 
of slavery there, and also defeated the compromise of 36° 30' 
across the country to the Pacific; for the Californians would 
hear of neither plan. This left to be settled the two questions 
of the boundary of Texas and of slavery in New Mexico; to 



^9^ 



WESTWARD EXPANSION 



these were added the problems of fugitive slaves and the slave 
trade in the District of Columbia. All these questions were 
settlejl by the Compromise of 1850, framed by Henry Clay and 
supported by northerners and southerners, Whigs and Dem- 
ocrats. In spite of the objections of radical antislavery men, 
the act was passed in 1850 and was supposed to be a finality. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Garrison, Westward Extension. — Hart, Epoch Maps, nos. 7, 8, 
11; Wall Maps, no. 14. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 198-210. 

Histories. Dodd, Expansion and Conflict, 1 14-132, 147-160, 168- 
182. — Elson, Side Lights, I. ch. xiii. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., chs. 
xvi, xix. — Garrison, Westward Extension, chs. i-v, viii-xx. — MacDonald, 
From Jefferson to Lincoln, 88-143. — Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
§§ 67-80, 83-86. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 399-415. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, HI. §§ 187-189, IV. §§ 7-22; Patriots and Statesmen, 
V. 13-130; Source Book, §§ 103-106. — James, Readitigs, §§ 67, 78-80. — 
Johnston, Am. Orations, H. 123-218. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, 
nos. 96-107. — - Old South Leaflets, nos. 45, 132. 

Side Lights and Stories. Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (Pacific 
coast). — Elliott, Sam Houston. — Fox, Carlota (Cal. before the con- 
quest). — Hough, Fifty-four Forty or Fight (Oregon). — Humphreys, 
Boy's Catlin (Indians). — Irving, Capt. Bonneville (Far West). — Laut, 
Story of the Trapper. — McNeil, Boy ' Forty -Niners. — Otis, Antoine of 
Oregon; Martha of California. — Thwaites, Rocky Mountain Exploration. 
— Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, II. 13-47. — Watts, Nathan 
Burke (Mexican War). 

Pictures. Dunbar, lUst. of Travel in Am. — Sparks, Expansion of 
Am. People. — Wilson, Am. People, IV. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 232) I. How was the presidential campaign of 1840 carried on? 
2. Why did President Tyler and the Whigs fall out? 3. How was the 
dispute on the Maine boundary settled? 

(§ 233) 4. How and when was Michigan admitted to the Union? 5. 
What was the Hudson's Bay Company? 6. What was Oregon and how 
was it occupied by European nations? 7. How was the interior fur trade 
carried on? 8 (For an essay). Adventures in the interior fur trade. 

(§ 234) 9. What was the Oregon Trail and how was it opened? 10 
(For an essay). Accounts of early journeys on the Oregon Trail. 11. 
How did Christian missions begin in the far Northwest? 12. Who was 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 299 

Fremont and what did he discover? 13. Who was Dr. Whitman and 
what did he do for the country? 

(§ 235) 14 (For an essay). Accounts of journeys on the Santa Fe Trail. 
15. How and when was Arkansas admitted to the Union? 16. How 
much territory did the Texans claim? 17. Why was there objection to 
the annexation of Texas? 

(§ 236) 18. Who were nominated and who was elected in the presi- 
dential campaign of 1844? 19. How was Texas admitted to the Union? 
20. How were Florida and Wisconsin admitted? 21. How was the dis- 
pute about Oregon settled? 22 (For an essay). Accounts of early jour- 
neys to Oregon. . 

(§ 237) 23. What grievances had the United States against Mexico? 
24 (For an essay). Accounts of Taylor's march and first fight with the 
Mexicans. 25. What were the principal battles of the Mexican War? 
26 (For an essay). Accounts of the soldiers' life in the war. 27. What 
territory did the United States gain? 28. How was the boundary with 
Mexico settled? 

(§ 238) 29. What action was taken relative to slavery in the new an- 
nexation? 30. What was the Wilmot Proviso? 31. What was the re- 
sult of the election of 1848? 

(§ 239) 32. What serious questions were raised by the annexation of 
New Mexico and California? 33 (For an essay). Early accounts of gold 
digging in California. 34. How did the Californians look on slavery? 

(§ 240) 35. What questions respecting slavery had to be settled by 
Congress? (See also § 239.) 36. What was the Omnibus Bill? 37. How 
did leading statesmen look on the Compromise of 1850? 38 (For an essay). 
Account of Webster's 7th of March speech. 39. What were the details of 
the Compromise of 1850? 40. Why was the compromise not a "finality"? 



CHAPTER XXII 
YOUNG AMERICA (1829-1861) 

242. Young Folks and Old Folks. — While the men and 
women of the Republic were so busy, what were the children 
doing? There were plenty of them, for more than half the 
population was under twenty-one years of age. For instance, 
the city of New York in i860 contained about 400,000 boys and 
girls. But children were not expected then to have all the 
delicacies, privileges, and pleasures of older people. Even in 
wealthy families they lived simple lives, rarely left the town 
or village where they lived, had little money to spend, and 
were expected to give way to their elders. An old gentleman, 
who was a child at that time, when asked whether he liked the 
white meat of chicken, answered that he had never found out, 
because when he was a child it never reached him, and now 
that he was old, it never came past his children. 

Intimate family life was perhaps more common then than 
now, because the children had fewer interests outside their own 
dwellings. Few attractions drew children from their homes, 
and in many households in country or city only one room was 
warmed in winter evenings, and early bedtimes were enforced. 
It was easy for parents and children to gather together, talking 
things over, doing light work, and reading aloud. Children 
who were away from home were expected to write long, fre- 
quent, and careful letters. In the large families the oldest 
chiklren helped to bring up the young ones, and were often a 
kind of second father and mother to them. 

People were fond of talking about the past, and often gave 
to chiklren historic names, such as George Washington or 
Andrew Jackson, or Bible names. Shearjasub Bourne was a 
name handed down from father to son in a Cape Cod family 
for five or six generations. Then, as now, good fathers and 

300 



HOME LIFE AND WORK. 30 1 

mothers told their children of their own early lives and 
struggles, and shared the events of the children's daily lives. 

243. Children's Work. — In the factory and mining vil- 
lages previous to i860, thousands of children were cruelly 
overworked and grew up in ignorance, because there was no 
time for them to go to school (§223). On the farms, then as 
now, every healthy boy and girl had regular tasks. They 
began while little to go for the cows, to water the stock, to lay 
the table, to wipe the dishes, to " rake after " the hay wagon, 
to care for lambs and little calves, to run cultivators, and to 
bend their backs over planting potatoes or weeding gardens. 
They thought it no hardship, and that is the way to learn 
practical farming. 

The girls did housework, picked fruit, helped at butter and 
cheese making, and joined in cutting and sewing together a 
variety of pieces for patchwork quilts. Much of the churning, 
which was rather hard work, was left to the girls. In the 
evenings all hands might shell corn, or work the apple parers 
and sausage grinders. 

Many town boys and girls had similar duties which cannot 
be performed in modern crowded cities. Most comfortable 
families kept a horse or a cow, chickens and pigs, which had to 
be cared for by the young folks. Vegetable and fruit gardens 
had to be weeded, grass had to be cut, errands run, fences 
whitewashed; all this required of the boys from one to four 
hours a day of useful work for the family. Country, village, 
and town girls almost all took part in the housework and did 
much sewing, for no girl was thought well brought up who 
could not use her needle handily, mend her own clothes and 
the family stockings, and make some of her clothes. Often 
she made shirts for her father and brothers. The newly in- 
vented sewing machine (§ 225) was a great help in these tasks. 

Outside the family, boys could begin early to earn wages for 
other people as errand boys; or they went into a shop to learn 
a trade, or worked as drivers of horses, as boys do now. 
Those who had enough schooling to write a good hand and were 
quick at figures could find work as clerks, bookkeepers, and 
telegraph operators, or as salesmen (then usually called 




A country school in the Forties 



CHILDREN'S PLAY 303 

"clerks") in stores; and a bright boy might expect to go on 
up till he became a storekeeper or mill owner. 

For the girls there were few chances of wage work except 
" working out " in neighboring families or going into the woolen 
and cotton mills. There were no women stenographers 
or library assistants. But plenty of bright girls sixteen years 
old or upwards were welcomed as school-teachers, though the 
pay was small and the work might last only a few months in 
the year. In the country the teacher who did not live at 
home was expected to " board round " among the families in 
the district. A capable girl of sixteen could manage her school 
for some time, unless, as often happened, one of the big boys 
insisted on marrying her. 

In the South the children of white farmers and of " poor 
white" families helped in the housework and farm work, but 
had few cattle to care for. On the plantations slave children of 
nine or ten were expected to begin as " quarter hands " ; that is, 
to do one fourth of a grown man's task. 

244. Children's Play. — Children at home seldom had too 
much to do, and they found time for happy play. Nowhere 
were children shut up in narrow streets lined with high build- 
ings. The largest cities contained plenty of vacant lots and 
grassy streets where children were undisturbed. There were 
no professional games to attend. Nobody belonged to regular 
baseball or football or rowing clubs, but boys got great fun 
out of such ball games as " rounders." This was an early form 
of baseball, in which the players had the fun of trying to 
■' patch out " the runner by hitting him with the ball while he 
was running between bases. 

The boys and girls, especially in the villages, were often 
brought up like members of one big family. They went to 
Sunday school, church, and day school together, played to- 
gether, and were fond 'of big-side games in which all could 
join, such as " pom-pom-pull-away," " prisoner's base," and 
" barny ball," where one excited group sent the ball over the 
top of a high building, and the other waited for it on the other 
side. Children loved good noisy, running, yelling, squealing 
games. 



304 YOUNG AMERICA 

Even in cities the open country was never far off, and most 
boys were within reach of a pond or creek or river or brook or 
bay, where they could enjoy the manly sport of swimming. 
On the seacoast, boys were brought up to handle boats, one of 
the best exercises for the muscles and the judgment. Many 
boys in city and country were used to dri\ing and riding 
horses; and in the South boys were brought up not only to 
ride but to hunt and shoot and camp out in the open. 

The favorite pleasures of modern young people were hardly 
known in those days. The theater was often a rough place, 
and the descendants of the Puritans believed that all plays 
were immoral. Dancing was forbidden by several of the na- 
tional churches, and frowned upon by others. Millions of 
boys and girls grew up without ever learning to dance. Still 
there were dancing parties and great balls in all the large 
places. The southern negroes invented several dances, clogs 
and double shuffles and the like, which they performed with 
great delight. Playing cards also were widely disapproved 
because they could be used for money games of chance; and 
it was thought that young people who were accustomed to 
them would be more likely to become gamblers. Several harm- 
less card games were therefore invented, such as the game of 
" Familiar Quotations." 

245. Holidays and Amusements. — The old-fashioned 
schools and colleges held six days a week, but the habit grew 
up of taking out first a Saturday half holiday and then the 
whole day. The colleges were in session most of the summer, 
but had a winter vacation of six weeks or more so that the 
students could go out and teach school. The town schools 
were in session about six or eight months during the year; but 
the rural " district " schools were closed more than half the 
year, for children could not be spared from the farm work. 

Regular holidays were few. The Fourth of Jul\' was the 
only day celebrated throughout the country; the old Puritans 
thought it wrong to celebrate Christmas, and in New England 
the schools were held on that day; but if the boys could get 
into the schoolhouse early, and " bar the teacher out," they 
earned the holiday. The German immigrants brought over 



AMUSEMENTS 305 

their habit of celebrating Christmas with a tree and gifts, and 
a joyous holiday season, and the custom spread to famiHes 
of other races. Thanksgiving was a day only for New Eng- 
land people and their descendants. 

One of the amusements was the traveling show, especially 
the circus, with its bareback riders, its live elephants, its 
comical clowns, and its green young man who tried to ride the 
trick mule and turned out to be one of the circus hands. 

Few people could afford to take long journeys, and trips 
to Europe were as uncommon as trips to India nowadays. 
Hardly anybody in the North thought of a summer vacation; 
a few found their way to Clifton Springs, or Saratoga, or 
Niagara Falls. Most children, both boys and girls, had the 
delight of running barefoot much of the summer. Southern 
families who could afford it took their carriages in the summer 
and drove off into the mountains to visit such places as the 
Natural Bridge of Virginia, White Sulphur Springs, and the 
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. 




Interior of an old country school 

246. Common Schools and Grade Schools. — By 1840 the 
northern states all had a complete common school system 
intended to reach every corner and hamlet. Public town and 
village schools existed in most of the southern states; and 
North Carolina tried to build up a rural system. The purpose 
was to give to every white child an opportunity for what we 



306 YOUNG AMERICA 

call a "common school education"; that is, reading, writing, 
arithmetic, geography, and spelling. In time these schools 
were gradually divided into two types, common or district 
schools, and grade schools. 

The country district school was open to all the nearby 
children; one teacher in one room taught the boys and girls of 
all ages. Those schools usually had poor buildings and appa- 
ratus. Many were taught by young people who had no train- 
ing but that of the district school. 

In places where the children were numerous 
enough to be assorted, ward or grade schools 
were organized, but they were poorly housed, 
and had a changing list of teachers. In many 
cities schools were controlled by politicians 
who put their own friends in with little re- 
gard for their ability. Hence principals and 
teachers might lose their places if a Whig or 
a Democratic school board or committee was 
elected. 

The different grade schools in the cities 
were for a long time disconnected from 
one another. Then city school superintend- 
ents were appointed to study the best 
. , ,^ , methods, to keep the various schools in 

A schoolboy's carica- 

tiire of his teacher, line, and to direct all the teachers. All 
B^cro/r '"^*°"^°' sorts of ways of interesting children were 
invented, such as "singing geography." A 
whole school would sing, to the tune of " Pop goes the 
Weasel," 

" State of Maine, Augusta, on the Kennebec River, 
State of Maine, Augusta, on the Kennebec River, 
Florida, Tallahassee, is an inland city, 
Florida, Tallahassee, is an inland city." 

New writing books were introduced with clear and beauti- 
ful script, especially the Spencerian system. Children did 
their figuring on slates, in rattling wooden frames. Better 
textbooks were written, though the school histories of the 




SCHOOLS 



307 



United States still dealt with little except the American 
Indians and the battles of the Revolution. 

247. Secondary Schools. — A few colonial New England 
towns set up public Latin schools (§59), and in 1821 Boston 
added an English high school for boys. Some other northern 
and western cities took up the idea, which had been a favorite 
notion with Thomas JefTerson. These high schools were ex- 
cellent schools with wide-awake principals and teachers. They 
taught English liter- 
ature, Latin, Greek, 
algebra and geome- 
try, physics, chemis- 
try, and astronomy 
from textbooks, 
aided by experi- 
ments shown by the 
instructor. They 
made much of " rhe- 
toricals"; that is, 
declamations, es- 
says, and debates ; 
they gave a good all- 
round training, and 
some of them pre- 
pared for college. 

Most boys who 
wanted to go to col- 
lege studied with a 
tutor, perhaps the 
village minister. In all parts of the country existed academies 
and other private schools with moderate fees and good teachers. 
"Spelling-down" contests drew out not only school children but 
older men and women. Singing schools were a great advantage, 
for they prepared a lifelong pleasure by teaching young people 
how to read music and to use the voice, and made possible 
the chorus choirs and congregational singing in churches. 

248. Education of Girls. — Girls did not fare so well as boys 
in education. They shared the district and ward schools, but 




A Woman's Rights meeting about i860 



3o8 



YOUNG AMERICA 



beyond that point they went to "select schools"; that is, 
private schools with a fee; or to boarding schools where they 
had poor teaching and were expected to learn little except 
" accomplishments," such as playing on the piano, drawing 
and painting, and singing. Between 1840 and i860 a few 
separate high schools were set up for girls; and in a few cities, 
among them Philadelphia, Providence, and Cleveland, public 
high schools were open to boys and girls, who were educated 
together in a very wholesome way. The teaching force in- 
cluded both men and women, who felt a strong personal 
interest in the welfare and training of the pupils. 

However defective the 
schooling of girls, the country 
abounded in well educated 
women who became active in 
all the reform movements of 
the time. Frances Wright was 
a leader in what we should now 
call a kind of " settlement " 
work for negroes. Lucretia 
Mott, a Quakeress, and Julia 
Ward Howe were noted speak- 
ers in the antislavery cause. 
" Fanny Fern," whose real 
name was Mrs. Sara P. W. 
Parton, was a clever writer in 
Mary Lyon founded a famous 
girls' school at Mount Holyoke. In 1833 the new frontier 
college oj Oberlin (Ohio) opened its doors to women — the first 
college to award them the A.R. degree. 

249. Colleges and Professional Schools. — From 1820 to 
i860 the colleges grew rapidly in numbers and several state 
universities were founded, which had the whole or part of their 
support out of the state treasury. The first of these, the 
University of Virginia (1825), was equal to any of the northern 
institutions of the time. It occupied a beautiful group of 
buildings designed by Jefferson, most of which are still 
standing. 




Mary Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke Col- 
lege. From a miniature of 1832 

newspapers and magazines. 



COLLEGES 



309 




In 1837 the state of 
Michigan provided for 
a state university, 
which was not opened, 
however, until 1841. 

North CaroHna and 
South Carolina also 
made some provision 
for state colleges. In 
1862 the federal gov- 
ernment gave a mag- 
nificent land grant to 
every state in the 
Union, out of which in 
the course of years 
grew over sixty state 
agricultural colleges. 

A few schools for 
engineers and scien- 
tific men were estab- 
lished before 1861, some as parts of public or private univer- 
sities; others as separate schools, such as the Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York. West Point, New 
York, was made a first-class school for the training of soldiers, 
and during the Mexican War a government naval academy 
was set up at Annapolis, Maryland. From these two schools 
came many famous generals and admirals. 

250. Summary. — Since so many chapters have been 
devoted to the work of public men, business men, farmers, and 
railroad men, it is fitting that one chapter be devoted especially 
to the lives of the children and youths seventy-five years ago. 

Young people, three quarters of a century ago, were of the 
same make-up as young people nowadays — healthy, lively 
boys and girls. Families lived more inside their own houses 
than they do now, and perhaps parents were better acquainted 
with their own children. 

Nearly all children did some work — some of them in cruelly 
hard employments in mills and mines; most of them shared 



(() Detroil Pub. Co. 
Part of the colonnade at the University of Virginia 



310 YOUNG AMERICA 

light indoor and outdoor work on their own farms and in their 
own houses. Boys, especially in the North and West, had a 
chance to earn a living, and to work up into good places. For 
girls there was little paid employment except teaching, 
domestic service, and mill work. On the plantations the half- 
grown colored children worked like their elders. 

Play was not organized into regular sports as it is now, but 
children in neighborhoods played big-side games together, and 
boys swam, drove, and rode horses. There were few theaters. 
Dancing and card-playing were frowned upon, though allowed 
in many places. 

Regular school and college vacations were short, but rural 
schools were held less than half of the year. There were few 
holidays, and very little going away from home for the summer 
except in the South. Country district schools and town grade 
schools existed in the northern and western states, and town 
schools in the South, all with poor buildings and apparatus, 
and untrained teachers. But city systems were begun with 
skilled superintendents. A few public high schools for boys 
were founded before 1850. 

Girls were admitted to the district and grade schools, and 
some of them went to boarding schools. At last a few high 
schools were opened to them; in a few places boys and girls 
were educated together. One college gave girls a chance to 
take the A.B. degree. 

Some of the colleges grew into universities, and several state 
universities were founded, and a new kind of technical school 
was set up for training engineers and scientific men. 

REFERENCES 

Histories. Boone, Education in the Un. States, pt. iii. — Brown, 
Making of Our Middle Schools, chs. xi-xv; Origin of Am. State Universities. 

— Johnson, Old-Time Schools and School-Books. — Mayo, Common Schools. 

— Thwing, Hist, of Higher Education in Am., chs. x-xv. 

Sources. Hart, Source Readers, III. nos. 12, 26, 105-115. — Old South 
Leaflets, nos. 109, 135, 144, 145. 

Side Lights and Stories. Alcott, Little Women. — Aldrich, Story of a 
Bad Boy. — Clemens (Mark Twain), Tom Sawyer. — Eggleston, Hoosier 
Schoolboy. — Hale, New England Boyhood. — Harland, When Grand' 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 31 1 

mamma was New. — Harris, Uncle Remus. — Hoar, Autobiography, I. 
chs. iv, vl, vii. — Howells, A Boy's Town. — Humphrey, When I was a 
Little Girl. — Larcom, New England Girlhood. — Muir, My Boyhood and 
Youth. — Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences. — Stoddard, Boy Lincoln; 
Saltillo Boys. — Venable, Buckeye Boyhood. — Warner, Being a Boy. 
Pictures. Goodrich (Peter Parley), Pictorial Hist, of U.S. 

QUESTIONS 

(§242) I. What was the ordinary family life of children about 1850- 
1860? 2 (For an essay). Accounts of child life by those who were then 
children. 3. What was the usual home life? 4. How were some chil- 
dren named? 5 (For an essay). Account of some boy who made his own 
way. 

(§ 243) 6. What were the outdoor tasks of boys and girls? 7. What 
were the indoor tasks of girls? 8. What were the money-earning occu- 
pations of girls and boys? 9. How did southern children live? 

(§244) 10. What were the ordinary outdoor sports of children? 11. 
What were their ordinary indoor amusements? 

(§ 245) 12. What were the ordinary sessions of schools and colleges? 
13. What were the usual holidays? 14. What traveling amusements were 
there? 15. What sorts of journeys and trips did well-to-do people take? 

(§ 246) 16. How were the country schools carried on? 17. How were 
city schools organized? 18 (For an essay). A day in country schools of 
that period. 19. What sort of books and apparatus did children use in 
school? 20 (For an essay). Accounts of old school books. 

(§ 247) 21. How were the high schools carried on? 22. What special 
schools and schooling did children enjoy? 23 (For an essay). Accounts of 
singing in a choir. 

(§ 248) 24. How were girls educated? 25. Name some famous women 
leaders and writers of this period. 

(§ 249) 26. How did the colleges and universities develop? 27. How 
did scientific and technical schools develop? 28 (For an essay) . Student's 
life in a college of the period. 



HART'S see. HIST. — l8 



CHAPTER XXIII 
SECTIONAL FEELING (1850-1860) 

251. New Leaders (1850-1860). — For several years after 
the Compromise of 1850 politics were rather tame. Nobody 
any longer urged a United States Bank. No party 'urged a 
high tariff; the low duties laid by Congress in 1846 were made 
still lower in 1857. No one urged money appropriations for 
internal improvements, for Congress made immense land 
grants to railroads (§230). The result was that in the presi- 
dential election of 1852 there were really no great questions 
upon which the parties divided, and Franklin Pierce of New 
Hampshire was easily elected President by the Democrats over 
General Winficld Scott, the Whig candidate. 

Between 1845 and 1852 the country lost by death ex-Presi- 
dents Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and the " Great 
Triumvirate " of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. Their places 
in public life were taken by younger leaders, who felt that 
they represented not only the sections from which they came 
but the whole country. The most eminent of these statesmen 
are the following: 

William H. Seward, who had been Whig governor of New 
York, became the champion of the eastern opponents of 
slavery. He was an ardent and impulsive man, who often 
said more than he intended — in spite of his most intimate 
political friend, Thurlow Weed, the Whig "boss " of New 
York, who tried to keep him from being too radical. He 
gave great offense to the South by speaking of " a higher law 
than the Constitution," meaning the law of liberty. 

Jefferson Davis, a Kentuckian by birth and one of the 
leaders in Mississippi, was the leading southern Democrat, 
and after Calhoun's death became the best-known proslavery 
statesman. He believed that slavery was the source of south- 

312 



NEW LEADERS AND NEW CITIZENS 



313 



ern wealth, and ought to be defended by parties and pubHc 
men. 

Salmon P. Chase, born in New Hampshire, went into the 
practice of law in Cincinnati. He soon became the ablest 
western abolitionist, and as a lawyer defended several aboli- 
tionists who were sued for aiding fugitives. He believed in 
action against slavery, and helped to build up several succes- 
sive antislavery parties. 

Stephen A. Douglas, a Vermonter by birth, spent most of 
his life in Illinois, where he became a Democratic leader. 
He was always greatly 
interested in the West, 
and favored canals and 
railroads. As to slavery, 
he was indifferent; the 
moral argument against it 
did not seem to reach his 
mind. 

252. New Citizens 
(1850-1860).—? o 1 i t i c a 1 
conditions were somewhat 
changed by the constant 
arrival of thousands of 
immigrants, many of 
whom, at the end of five 
years, became naturalized 
citizens and joined one of 
the existing political 
parties. The Democratic party was especially popular among 
the Irish and the Germans. In 1851 the American people 
were stirred up by a visit from Louis Kossuth, who had been 
the leader in an attempt to set up a republic in Hungary. 

In the ten years from 1850 to i860 there were over two and 
a half million immigrants. A large emigration started from 
Ireland in 1846 because of a famine, and nearly all, the large 
cities of the northern United States received thousands of 
Irishmen. Many of the other immigrants were exiles from 
Germany, where revolutions broke out in 1848 and many of 




Stephen A. Douglas, 1813-1861 



314 



SECTIONAL FEELING 




Carl Schurz, as an officer in the army of the 
United States 



those who took the popular side had to leave that country. 
Among the highly educated and strong men who thus came 

to the United States was 
Carl Schurz, who became 
a thorough and patriotic 
American. 

Part of this steady drift 
of immigrants from abroad 
found its way to the West 
by the old water route 
through the Erie Canal and 
the Lakes, and by the new 
railroads. The first rail- 
road from the East reached 
Chicago in 1853 and that 
city at once began a won- 
derful growth. Hundreds 
of thousands of easterners 
also went out west. There 
the foreigners and the native Americans began life side by 
side under like conditions, went to school together, worked 
together, joined the same churches, societies, and orders, and 
showed that the United States was a "melting pot" for all 
kinds of pcoiiles. 

253. National Issue of Slavery (1850-1860). — Though the 
old political questions had lost their force, there was one 
issue that aroused the bitterest personal and sectional feeling. 
This was slavery, which was steadily gaining ground in the 
South. All hope that it would die out of itself was now at an 
end, for the 760,000 slaves of 1790 (§130) had increased to 
nearly 3,500,000. The territory open to slavery was also en- 
larged through the annexation of Texas and the chance to in- 
troduce slaves into New Mexico (§§ 236, 237). 

Southern leaders such as Jefferson Davis now took the 
ground that slavery was a good thing which ought to be ex- 
tended further. The only way to bring about this result was 
to annex new territory, and President Pierce did his best to 
add to the Union the slaveholding island of Cuba. Cuba 



SLAVERY ISSUES 315 

could not be annexed without the consent of the northern 
members of Congress, and this was never given. 

Nowadays, when slavery has entirely disappeared, it is 
hard to realize how strong and how important it seemed. 
About 8000 leading southern families owned at least three 
fourths of all the slaves, and took the lead in business, social 
life, and politics. The small slaveholders, thousands of 
whom owned only one slave apiece, the non-slaveholding 
farmers, and the poor whites (§ 196), all felt that they belonged 
to the master class, for they might own slaves sometime. 
Practically the whole white population of the South agreed 
with the statement later made by Alexander H. Stephens, a 
southern leader. In 1861 he declared that the strength of 
the South " rests upon the great truth that the negro is not 
equal to the white man; that slavery ... is his natural and 
normal condition." In addresses, newspapers, and books, 
they stoutly defended slavery. 

254. Proslavery Arguments. — The arguments in defense 
of slavery were about as follows: (i) It was a boon to the 
negro to bring him from Africa into a Christian country; 
and slavery was Christian because it was practiced by the 
Hebrew patriarchs, such as Abraham. (2) Slavery was good 
for the negro, who was happy in his lot and otherwise would 
starve. (3) Slavery made it possible to do work which white 
men could not be hired to do. (4) If the negroes were not 
kept as slaves, they would rise and exterminate the white 
people. (5) Slavery supported a desirable class of masters 
who had time to cultivate their minds and carry on the gov- 
ernment. (6) The social life and business of the South were 
founded upon slavery, and emancipation would mean ruin for 
all classes. (7) To admit that slavery was wrong would brand 
as criminals all the slaveholders, including the best men and 
women in the South, and would blacken the memory of their 
fathers and grandfathers. 

255. Antislavery Arguments. — In the North, slavery 
had practically ceased to exist. There were no great land- 
owners, and the two classes who had the most votes and 
exercised the greatest political power were the independent 



31 6 SECTIONAL FEELING 

farmers and the wage earners. Both classes looked on slav- 
ery with dislike and suspicion because the slave owners looked 
down on all those who had to work with their hands; and it 
seemed unjust to free workers that a few persons should be 
alloA^ed to take all the profits from the labor of slaves. 

The abolitionists kept up a rousing agitation through pub- 
lic meetings, newspapers, and books. James Russell Lowell 
aided the cause with bitter satires upon the southern slave- 
holders, expressed in Yankee dialect in his Biglow Papers. 
Besides the abolitionists there were thousands of antislavery 
men, including Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward, who 
hated slavery, though they did not call themselves abolitionists. 

The main arguments thus put forward were about as fol- 
lows: (i) Slavery was contrary to Christianity, for it denied 
the equality of all human souls in the sight of God. (2) Slav- 
ery was contrary to the principles of human freedom stated in 
the Declaration of Rights and the Declaration of Independence 
(§§92, 112). (3) Slavery was brutal and cruel, and stunted 
the minds and souls of the negroes. (4) Slavery had a bad 
effect on the morals of the whites. (5) Slave labor was 
crude and wasteful, and really did not pay. (6) Slaver>^ was 
so weak and worthless that its supporters were afraid to allow 
it to be discussed in public. (7) Slavery was against modern 
civilization, and for that reason was prohibited in Europe 
and in every part of North and South America, except Brazil, 
Cuba, Porto Rico, and the United States. 

The case against slavery was put in a thrilling form in the 
novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, a northern lady who had seen a little of 
slavery in Kentucky. It was a story of both the bright and 
the dark sides of slave life. But the public was most inter- 
ested in the dark side, in the cruel master Legree, and the 
heart-rending fate of Uncle Tom. The southerners thought 
this picture of slavery unreal, but the book was read all over 
the United States and was translated into many languages. 
Millions of readers both in America and in Europe were led 
by it to believe that slavery was contrary to religion and 
humanity. 



ABOLITIONISTS AND FUGITIVES 



317 



256. Fugitive Slaves (1850-1860). — The dark side of 
slavery was brought home to northern people by thousands 
of runaway slaves. When they passed across Mason and 
Dixon's line (§ 123) they found a secret organization of 
abolitionists, called the " Underground Railroad," which car- 
ried fugitives from house to house on regular routes, till 
they crossed the boundary into Canada. There they were 
safe, because Great Britain had prohibited slavery in all her 
colonies. 

The United States provided a law for the recapture of 
fugitive slaves, but 
some of the northern 
states passed Personal 
Liberty Laws which 
forbade all aid to slave 
hunters by state ofifi- 
cials or jails. A few 
states directly inter- 
fered with the work- 
ing of the national 
Fugitive Slave Law. 
Wisconsin state courts 
said that the Fugitive 

Slave Law was itself void because it was contrary to the 
higher law of the Constitution. 

Many abolitionists would not hestitate to break that law 
openly by taking fugitive slaves out of the hands of their 
owners. The most striking instance was that of a slave- 
holder named Gorsuch, who in 1851 came from Maryland to 
find some runaway slaves whom he knew to be in a house in 
Christiana, Pennsylvania. Armed negroes inside warned 
him not to enter, but he said, " I'll have my property or I'll 
lose my life." He made a rush for the house and in a minute 
he was shot, and the fugitives escaped and were never found. 
Such interference with the law was felt by the South to show 
hostile feeling among the northern people. 

257. Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1854). — By the Missouri 
Compromise of 1820 (§ 191) slavery was " forever " prohibited 




Unpacking a fugitive slave, Henry " Box " Brown, who 
was sent in a crate from Baltimore to Philadelphia 



318 



SECTIONAL FEELING 



in every part of the Louisiana cession north of 36° 30', except 
in the state of Missouri. Most people supposed that this 
compromise was final and beyond repeal. Senator Douglas 
of Illinois, however, was a great believer in the right of " pop- 
ular sovereignty," by which he meant that the people in any 
state or territory ought to settle their own affairs, including 
slavery. A territorial government was needed west of the 
Missouri River. Hence in 1854 Douglas brought in a bill 
for the organization of the territory of Nebraska, which was 












,4' "•%' 




Western territories in 1854, showing the effect of the Compromise of 1850 and of 
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill 

soon changed so as to provide for creating the two territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska. 

Some action was needed and this bill would probably have 
gone through without trouble had not Douglas put into it 
his principle of popular sovereignty, which would allow the 
settlers in the territory to do as they liked about slavery, 
notwithstanding the Missouri Compromise. Douglas tried 
to dispose of that difficulty by adding to his bill the statement 
that the Compromise of 1850 (which related to New Mexico) 
had " superseded " the Compromise of 1820 (which related 
to the Louisiana Purchase). 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 319 

The antislavery men at once saw that the real purpose of 
the bill was to make a slave state out of Kansas, so as to give 
the South something to balance the admission of California 
as a free state (§ 240). They accused Douglas of turning Kan- 
sas over to the South, in the hope that the southerners would 
vote for him for President. In spite of all their efforts, the 
bill was passed, and the two territories were organized. 

258. The Republican Party (1854-1856). — To Douglas's 
surprise the Kansas-Nebraska Bill brought about a great 
political change. Just at this time arose the Native American 
party, usually called the " Know-nothings," whose main prin- 
ciple was that no foreigners ought to hold office. This party 
lasted only a few months, but in the elections to Congress in 
1854 the Know-nothings made combinations with the "Anti- 
Nebraska men," a name given to both Whigs and Democrats 
who would not accept popular sovereignty for the territories. 
At the same time appeared a new political party which called 
itself the Republican party. These three elements elected 
about half of the members of the new House of Representa- 
tives which would sit from 1855 to 1857, and that prevented 
the proslavery men from doing anything towards making 
Kansas a slave state until after the next national election. 

The Republican party included Free-soilers of 1848 (§ 238), 
antislavery Whigs, of whom Seward was the chief, and anti- 
slavery Democrats, such as Chase. Thus was brought about 
what the South had long expected and feared — a national 
party which was determined that slavery should spread no 
farther. 

The Republican party had an issue right before it. Settlers 
were hurrying into Kansas. Proslavery men from Missouri 
and other slave states brought a few slaves; other southern 
immigrants had no slaves and wanted none. In the East, 
emigrant aid societies raised funds to send out northern 
farmers, all antislavery men and many of them abolitionists. 
At the first territorial election (1855) hundreds of men, com- 
monly called " border ruffians," who did not live in Kansas 
crossed over and outvoted the settlers who were on the ground. 
For months there was practically a civil war in the new terri- 



320 SECTIONAL FEELING 

tory between the border ruffians and the antislavery men. 
The friends of the free-state men in Kansas gave the name 
of " Bleeding Kansas " to this unhappy controversy. 

259. Growth of the Republicans (1856-1858). — When the 
presidential election of 1856 came along there were three parties 
and candidates: (i) The Republicans put up John C. Fre- 
mont of California (§ 234), a young man new to politics, who 
was popular with the " first voters." (2) The Democrats 
nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, an old-line poli- 
tician who was friendly to slavery, (3) The Know-nothings 
and what was left of the Whig party supported Millard Fill- 
more (§ 240). The Republicans carried all the northern and 
northwestern states except five, but Buchanan was elected. 

The Republicans had elected many state governors. Sen- 
ators, and Representatives, and looked forward with hope 
to the next presidential election. They were much aided in 
their effort to secure friends and voters by the action of the 
Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott case 
in 1857. That court, under the guidance of Chief Justice 
Taney, thought that it could settle once for all the question 
of slavery in the territories, by deciding that neither Congress 
nor a territorial legislature could forbid slavery in a territory. 
Therefore it held that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had 
always been void because contrary to the higher law of the 
Constitution. If that were correct, nobody could prevent 
slavery in a territory, not even the people living there. 

260. Lincohi-Douglas Debate (1858). — President Bu- 
chanan decided that the best way to stop the troubles in 
Kansas was to make it a state; and in 1857, he arranged that 
a convention should meet at Lecompton and frame a state 
constitution. It was a proslavery body and put in force a 
proslavery constitution without proper opportunity to the 
people to vote for or against slavery in the new state. 

Buchanan then tried to induce Congress to make Kansas 
a slave state whether the people wished it or not. This was 
so opposed to the whole idea of popular sovereignty that 
Douglas fought against the Lecompton constitution with all 
his might and defeated it in Congress. 



LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 321 

Throughout this turmoil a country lawyer named Abraham 
Lincoln was living quietly at Springfield, Illinois. He had 
served in the state legislature and one term in Congress, but 
for several years had been out of public life. In 1858 the 
Illinois Republicans chose him to be their candidate against 
the mighty Douglas, for election to the United States Senate. 
Lincoln had the courage to challenge Douglas, the fiercest 
and ablest stump speaker in the country, to a series of joint 
debates. 

At last came the opportunity for which Lincoln had waited. 
In seven hot debates, from end to end of the state, he defended 
his great doctrine that " a house divided against itself cannot 
stand . . . this government cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free." He denied the value of popular sov- 
ereignty, and compelled Douglas to admit in the so-called 
" Freeport Doctrine," that perhaps the people of a territory 
might prevent slavery by " unfriendly legislation." This 
statement enabled Douglas to win the election for the Senate. 
But Jefferson Davis and his friends would have nothing to 
do with a man who would not defend slavery through thick 
and thin, and looked on him as an enemy. As for Lincoln, 
his ability and eloquence placed him at once among the great 
leaders of his party and the strongest champions of antislavery. 

261. John Brown's Raid (1859). — In 1859 the country 
was startled by an attempt to induce slaves to run away and 
form camps in the mountains where they could fight their 
masters. John Brown, a strong abolitionist and at one time 
a Kansas free-state settler, with eighteen followers captured 
the town of Harpers Ferry in Virginia and took possession 
of the government arsenal there. Brown failed to induce 
many negroes to join him, and after hours of fighting he was 
captured by marines commanded by Col. Robert E. Lee. 

He was duly charged with murder and treason against the 
state of Virginia, had a fair and open trial, and was condemned 
and executed. Though he had caused the death of several 
innocent persons, he maintained to the last that he had done 
a good action. His courage impressed even his jailers; and 
the abolitionists and many others saw something heroic in a 



322 



SECTIONAL FEELING 



man thus risking his life for lowly people whom he had never 
seen. 

262. New Territories and States (1854-1859). — After the 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, there were seven territories: Kansas, 
Nebraska, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, 
and Utah. The last mentioned made trouble for the United 
States in this period. It was inhabited chiefly by Mormons, 
or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 
which had been formed about thirty years before. The Mor- 
mons went from New York to Ohio, then to Missouri, and 
from there to Nauvoo, Illinois. Their leader or prophet, 
Joseph Smith, was killed by a mob (i 844) . Their new prophet, 
Brigham Young, ad\ised them to move out to the far West. 
They settled near Great Salt Lake, and set up the tem- 
porary, so-called "State of Deserct." When the United 

States created the ter- 
ritory of Utah in 1850 
(§240), Young was 
appointed governor. 

Salt Lake lay on the 
main highway across 
the continent. Lines 
of "overland mail 
coaches " ran from the 
Missouri River to Cali- 
fornia; a pony express 
carried mails at the rate of ten miles an hour, day and night ; and 
wagon trains of emigrants were constantly passing ov^r the 
route. Many complaints were made by the emigrants to Cali- 
fornia and Oregon that the Mormons interfered with them. 
One party was murdered at Mountain Meadow, Utah, and it 
was claimed that the Mormons were responsible for the attack. 
When President Buchanan appointed another governor than 
Young, the Mormons set up the objection that nobody had a 
right to enter the territory without their leave. The Presi- 
dent was obliged to send out troops (1857), who occupied the 
territory and protected the federal officials and the trouble 
at last subsided. 




The pony express. Mail and valuable packages were 
carried by relays of riders along a line of stages 



NEW TERRITORIES AND STATES 



323 



The territory of Minnesota was admitted in 1858 as the 32d 
state in the Union. The population was already about 160,000, 
for it was a prairie region with good wheat land, which attracted 
settlers from the other states and from foreign countries. 




Capitol building, St. Paul, Minnesota, built in 1898-1904 



Oregon grew more slowly, but emigrants kept coming in by 
the Oregon Trail and by sea. They settled mostly along the 
Columbia River and in the broad and fertile Willamette 
Valley. Besides farming they had a timber trade from the 
enormous trees that grew there, and the salmon fishery was 
valuable. In 1859 Oregon was admitted as the 33d state in 
the Union with about 50,000 inhabitants. This made eight- 
een free states, as against fifteen slave states, and no further 
slave state was in sight unless Kansas could be forced to accept 
slavery. 

263. Election of i860. — As the country approached the 
election of i860 the Republicans were growing stronger while 
the Democrats were divided. Four tickets were nominated, 
as follows: (i) The regular Democratic convention at 
Charleston broke up; part of the delegates assembled again 
and nominated Douglas. (2) The extreme proslavery Dem- 
ocrats held a separate convention and nominated Breckin- 
ridge of Kentucky. (3) The old Whigs who had not joined 



324 



SECTIONAL FEELING 



either the Democratic or the RepubHcan party formed what 
they called the Constitutional Union party, and nominated 
Bell of Tennessee. (4) The Republicans held a rousing con- 
vention in Chicago. Seward expected their nomination, but 
Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a western candidate. 

Lincoln was born in Kentucky and brought up in the states 
of Indiana and Illinois, where there was much sympathy with 
slavery. He was nominated because he was almost the only 
man in the West who was not afraid of Douglas and because 
he had a reputation for clear thinking and strong speaking. 
He was not an extreme man and saw no reason why the South 
should object to his presidency. 

It was a confused campaign. Breckinridge had very few 
votes in the North, and Lincoln hardly any in the South. Lin- 
coln received a total of 1,900,000 votes against 1,400,000 for 
Douglas and i ,400,000 for the other two candidates together. 




How the states voted in the presidential election of i860 

But though nearly a million more votes were cast for the other 
three candidates together than for Lincoln, he carried every 
one of the northern and northwestern states, and that gave 
him a majority of the electoral votes. The only question was 
whether he would be President of the whole Union or of only 



ELECTION OF i860 



325 



part of it; for threats were already made that if he were 
elected the South would withdraw from the Union. 

264. Summary. — This chapter deals with the last ten 
years before the Civil War, in which the North and the South 
grew to dislike and 
distrust each other, 
because of the ex- 
istence of slavery. 

A new body of 
poUtical leaders 
came forward, of 
whom the most 
noted are Seward, 
Jeflferson Davis, 
Chase, Douglas, 
Stephens, Lincoln, 
and Buchanan. 
Immigrants poured 
into the country 
and many of them 
took an active part 
in politics. 

The North and 
the South were 
now divided about 
slavery. The 
South felt that 
their profits and 
their political 
strength depended 
upon it and de- 
fended it as good for the negro and the white population. 
The abolitionists and antislavery men denounced slavery 
with all their might, as unchristian, contrary to popular 
government, and bad for both negroes and masters. The 
most powerful attack upon slavery was the novel. Uncle 
Toms Cabin. Fugitive slaves brought tales of their experi- 
ences to the North, and the Personal Liberty Laws passed 




Statue of Abraham Lincoln by Saint-Gaudens, in 
Lincoln Park, Chicago 



326 SECTIONAL FEELING 

by some of the northern states gave great offense to the South. 
Some fugitives were arrested by violence. 

A new stage of the antislavery conflict began when the 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed in 1854, which made it 
possible to create a slave state in Kansas. The result was 
the formation of the Republican party, a large national anti- 
slavery organization. The Republicans were not quite able 
to elect a President in 1856, but were aided by the popular 
opposition to the Dred Scott decision and by the Lecompton 
constitution. 

Abraham Lincoln came out as the antislavery champion, 
and opposed Stephen A. Douglas. John Brown, by his raid 
in Virginia, showed to what extremes some abolitionists 
would go. Two new states were admitted to the Union, 
Minnesota and Oregon, both of them free. In the election 
of i860 the Democrats were divided and Lincoln was elected 
President, receiving few votes except in the free states; and 
threats of secession were made. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, no. 24. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 202, 
203, 206. — Smith, Parties and Slavery. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, ch. xxiii. — Chadwick, Causes of Civil 
War, chs. i-viii. — Elson, Side Lights, I. chs. xiv-xvi, IL ch. i. — Hart, 
Monroe Doctrine, ch. ix. — MacDonald, From Jefferson to Lincoln, 151- 
247. — Smith, Parties and Slavery, chs. i-iv, vi-xviii. — Wilson, Division 
and Reunion, §§ 87-102. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 2, 17, 23. — Caldwell and Pcrsingcr, 
Source Hist., 418-432. — Hart, Contemporaries, IV. §§29-52; Patriots 
and Statesmen, V. 130-259. — James, Readings, §§84, 85. — Johnston, 
Am. Orations, H. 268-340, HL 3-207. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, 
nos. 108-116; Select Docs., nos. 84-97. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 82-85, 
107, 151. 

Side Lights and Stories. Brooks, Boy Settlers (Kansas). — Brown, 
5. A. Douglas. — Chamberlin, John Brown. — Conway, Pine and Palm. 

— Eggleston, Two Gentlemen of Virginia. — Hough, Purchase Price. — 
Morgan, The Issue. — Page, In Ole Virginia. — Smedes, Southern Planter. 

— Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin. — Trowbridge, Neighbor Jackwood. — 
Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, U. 47-68. 

Pictures. Sparks, Expansion of Am. People. — Wilson, Am. People, 
IV. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 327 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 251) I. Why was party spirit low in the election of 1852? 2. What 
changes were there in political leaders? 3. What kind of statesman was 
William H. Seward? Jefferson Davis? Salmon P. Chase? Stephen A. 
Douglas? 

(§ 252) 4. How did immigrants affect parties? 5. What made immi- 
gration lively about 1850? 6. What effect had immigration on the West? 

(§ 253) 7. How did slavery affect public feeling? 8. How did slavery 
afTect foreign policy? 9. What was the influence of slavery in the South? 
10 (For an essay). Life on a great slave plantation. 

(§ 254) II. What were the main arguments in favor of slavery? 

(§255) 12. Why was slavery disliked by the North? 13 (For an essay). 
Account of an abolitionist meeting. 14. What were the main arguments 
against slavery? 15. What was the effect of Uncle Tom's Cabin? 

(§256) 16 (For an essay) . Experiences of a fugitive slave. 17. What 
was the "Underground Railroad"? 18. What were the Personal Liberty 
Laws? 19. Why did the rescue of fugitive slaves arouse the South? 20 
(For an essay). The Christiana fugitive slave case. 

(§ 257) 21. How did the Missouri Compromise work? 22. What was 
the doctrine of popular sovereignty? 23. What was the Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill? 24. Why .did the antislavery men oppose the bill? 

(§ 258) 25. What was the "Know-nothing" party? 26. How did the 
Kansas- Nebraska Bill affect the political parties? 27. How was the Re- 
publican party formed? 28. What was the cause of the troubles in Kan- 
sas? 

(§ 259) 29. What was the result of the election of 1856? 30. What was 
the Dred Scott case? 

(§ 260) 31. What was the Lecompton constitution? 32 (For an 
essay). Account of the debates between Lincoln and Douglas. 33. What 
was the Freeport Doctrine; and why was it bad for Douglas? 

(§ 261) 34. What was the John Brown raid? 35 (For an essay). Ad- 
ventures of John Brown. 

(§ 262) 36. How did the Mormon church arise? 37 (For an essay). 
The Mormon emigration to Salt Lake. 38. How did troubles arise in 
Utah? 39. When and how was Minnesota admitted to the Union? 40. 
When and how was Oregon admitted? 

(§ 263) 41. Who were the candidates for the presidency in i860? 42. 
(For an essay). Nomination of Lincoln at Chicago. 43. What was the 
result of the election? 



CHAPTER XXIV 



FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR (1860-1863) 

265. Secession. — Though Lincoln would have been satis- 
fied simply to stop slavery from spreading further, South Car- 
olina at once called a convention, as had been done in 1832 
(§212), to speak the mind of the people of the state. In the 
midst of this excitement Congress met (December 3) , and Presi- 
dent Buchanan sent in a message which argued that no state 
has a right to secede from the Union, but if a state does secede, 
the Federal government has no right to prevent it. 

Such weak reasoning could not hold South Carolina back. 
On December 20, a convention passed an ordinance declar- 
ing that the state was no longer a part of the Union; and 
the Charleston newspapers began to print dispatches from the 
North under the title " Foreign Intelligence." 

All parts of the state obeyed the ordinance, except three 
forts in Charleston harbor which had been built by the Fed- 
eral government and held Fed- 
eral troops. While commis- 
sioners were in Washington 
demanding that these forts 
should be given up, Major 
Anderson, who was in com- 
mand, moved his troops (De- 
cember 26) from the weak 
Fort Moultrie to the strong 
Fort Sumter. Buchanan was 

ready to turn Fort Sumter Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter 

over to South Carolina, and thereby to admit that a state 
could secede. His Cabinet prevented this. From that 
time he was a mere figurehead; he had no power as 
President. 




hart's sch. Hisr. — 19 



329 



330 FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR 

As had been planned beforehand, six more states quickly 
seceded, taking in the whole belt from South Carolina to 
Texas; but the eight other slave states held ofif. Delegates 
from the seceded states formed at Montgomery, Alabama, a 
government which they called the Confederate States of 
America (February, 1861), and Jefferson Davis was chosen its 
President. Nearly all the United States arsenals, public build- 
ings, forts, and navy yards in the South were seized. Volunteer 
soldiers were drilling all through that section; but the south- 
erners could not believe that the North would fight, and for 
several months they allowed the United States still to carry 
their mails. 

266. Attempts to Compromise (1860-1861). — What could 
be done to save the Union? Many southern men loved it; 
among them was Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia (§253), 
who urged that there was no good reason for secession. Why 
could not some law or constitutional amendment be passed 
that would satisfy both parties? 

Special committees were appointed in both houses of Con- 
gress to work on this problem, but neither Jefferson Davis, 
who represented the South, nor Seward, who was spokesman for 
the Republicans, would make concessions that the other side 
could accept. We now know that Abraham Lincoln advised 
his friends not to vote for any compromise that would allow 
the South to annex more slave territory and admit more slave 
states; and everybody thought that unless slavery could 
have more room it would surely die out. Nevertheless, Lin- 
coln could not believe that the South really meant to leave 
the Union. 

The compromise committees failed, as did other plans. 
When Congress expired (March 3, 1861), it was clear that the 
seven Confederate states meant to stay out of the Union ; and 
therefore the only good that compromise could do would be to 
keep in the Union all or part of the eight other slave states. 
Meanwhile twelve southern Senators and thirty-one members 
of the House had left Congress. All this while Major An- 
derson, with his little garrison, was holding on in Fort Sum- 
ter, waiting for orders from the new President. 



RIGHT OR WRONG OF SECESSION 331 

267. Right or Wrong of Secession (1861). — When Lincoln 
was inaugurated (March 4, 1861) secession was already a fact. 
When the southern members withdrew from Congress the 
northern majority admitted Kansas as a free state, with 1 10,000 
people. This made thirty-four states, but seven of them 
had ceased to take any part in the Union. The critical ques- 
tions were: Would the other slaveholding states follow? 
Would all the nineteen free states stand by the United 
States government in resisting secession? 

Here was one of the many cases where what people think is 
as important as what they do. Without doubt most of the 
southern people thought secession was right; it was believed 
and taught by their great public men, like Calhoun, and Jeffer- 
son Davis, and Alexander H. Stephens. Most of the thinking 
men and women of the South considered the Union to be what 
it was called in nullification times, a " compact between 
sovereign states" (§ 213). If the North would not stand by 
the Constitution as the South understood it, and protect 
slavery, the southerners held that they were released from all 
obligations to the Union, and could secede. They looked on 
secession as one of the rights which by the Constitution 
were " reserved to the states respectively or to the people." 
Hence, they always resented being called " rebels "; they said 
that they were not in rebellion, but were carrying on a " war 
between the states." 

A few of the northern people accepted that doctrine, and many 
more thought that if the southern people were bent on secession 
there was no use in trying to stop them. Horace Greeley was 
writing day after day in the New York Tribune, " Let the 
erring sisters go in peace." William Lloyd Garrison (§204) 
was pleased at the idea of at last being rid of the slave- 
holders. 

Yet by far the greater number of northerners believed with 
Webster that the Union was "a people's government"; that 
the Constitution bound every state that had ratified it, 
and every new state that had been admitted into the Union; 
and that secession was nothing but treason and rebellion. 
They felt that the United States of America was greater than 



332 



FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIML WAR 



the states, and that to break up the Union was also a sin in 
the sight of God. 

Many southerners who sincerely loved the Union, such as 
Robert E. Lee, believed that if their state seceded, they were 
morally bound to go along. We must respect their honesty, 

but we must also re- 
spect the honesty of 
General W'infield Scott, 
Admiral David Farra- 
gut, and scores of other 
southerners who saw 
their duty differently, 
and gave their loyalty 
and service to the 
United States, though 
their own states 
seceded. 

268. Real Reasons 
for Secession (1861). 
— In any case, most 
northern people and 
some southerners felt 
that there was no 
danger to the South 
which required seces- 
sion. The Democrats, 
who were not hostile 
to slavery, would still 
have a majority in the 
Senate, and perhaps in 
the next House, and 
the majority of the 
Supreme Court fa\ored slavery; the President would be the 
only antislavery part of the government. Let us set down 
the main reasons put forward by the southern secessionists 
for their action : 

(i) The northern states would not perform their duties; 
an evidence was the Personal Liberty Laws (§ 256) which 




General Robert E. Lee, 1807-1870 



REASONS FOR SECESSION 333 

interfered with the capture of fugitive slaves. — On this point 
Lincoln advised that, as far as such laws were contrary to the 
Constitution, they should be withdrawn. 

(2) The North was banded together to prevent the further 
spread of slavery. — This was the main reason for secession as 
stated in the southern newspapers, speeches, and addresses 
prepared by the seceding conventions. 

(3) The strong language of the abolitionists against " our 
domestic institutions" could no longer be borne. — -Robert 
Toombs of Georgia said that the matter would be settled if the 
North would call slavery right. 

(4) Whatever Lincoln might do, the North as a section was 
opposed to slavery and would use its majority of states and 
voters to destroy slavery. — That fear was justified though the 
danger was not yet close. 

On the other hand, the Republicans, who were now made 
up nearly equally of former Whigs and former Democrats, 
stated their complaints about as follows: 

(i) The South had for years browbeaten the North, and 
had tried to stop the discussion of slavery in public meetings, 
in newspapers, and even in Congress. 

(2) The South had annexed Texas and New Mexico so as 
to provide more slave states, and was trying to annex Cuba 
for the same purpose. 

(3) The South demanded that the northern states should 
allow sla-^^eholders to hold slaves in the free states for short 
periods. 

(4) The South had broken the slavery compromises and the 
Constitution, and was willing to destroy the Union which had 
done so much for both sections. 

269. Outbreak of War (April, 1861). — It chanced that the 
issue soon changed from arguments about secession to the vital 
question whether Fort Sumter should be given up to the south- 
ern Confederacy. In January, Buchanan's administration 
sent the merchant steamer Star of the West to carry provisions 
to the garrison; but it was fired upon by the South Carolina 
batteries, and turned back. After that everybody waited 
till Lincoln should be inaugurated. 



334 FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR 

As soon as the new President appointed a new Cabinet, he 
asked for its advice about Fort Sumter. If he strengthened 
the fort the Confederacy would surely attack it; but to give 
it up would be an admission that South Carolina had a right 
to secede. Lincoln was convinced that in either case war 
would break out; for if the North and the South could not 
agree under a joint Federal government, how could they be 
friends as two rival nations? 

Lincoln, therefore, made up his mind to send provisions to 
Fort Sumter by a war fleet. In fulfillment of a promise, he gave 
notice that he had decided on such action; but the Confeder- 
ate government hesitated to issue orders to attack. Robert 
Toombs said it would bring on war, but President Davis 
made the final decision, and early on the morning of April 
12, 1861, the Confederate batteries opened fire. The garri- 
son defended itself, till the buildings were set on fire by the 
shells, and the masonry was smashed. The Federal fleet 
arrived but lay helpless outside the harbor, the entrance to 
which was covered by Confederate batteries. After thirty 
hours of bombarding, the fort was so damaged that Anderson 
surrendered. 

This result was fortunate for the North, for actual war was 
begun by an attack upon the flag of the United States. Lin- 
coln at once appealed to all the states which had not seceded, 
to furnish militia to put down " an insurrection." Four more 
states forthwith seceded — Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and 
North Carolina. Federal troops were soon sent to the other 
border slave states. Delaware was loyal to the Union. 
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were divided, though 
apparently in all three the majority was for the Union. The 
Germans of St. Louis helped to prevent their state from seceding. 

The eleven states which had combined as the Confederate 
States of America set up their capital at Richmond, Virginia. 
All the remaining twenty-three states stood by the Union, 
though California and Oregon were too far away to take a 
serious part in the struggle. 

270. Campaign of 1861. — The United States was in no 
condition to carry on war. Out of 2300 military and naval 



CAMPAIGN OF 1861 



335 



officers 550 joined the Confederacy; the few thousand troops 
were scattered in the West; and some of the best vessels 
of the httle navy fell into the hands of the Confederates. 
Washington was in sight of the Virginia hills which the Con- 
federacy claimed as a part of its territory. President Lincoln, 
who, under the Constitution, was commander in chief of the 




The " White House of the Confederacy," Richmond, Va. This was Jefiferson 
Davis's home during the war and is now fitted up as a museum of Con- 
federate relics 



army and navy, was not a military man; and many of the 
officers had seen little service in the field. 

The southerners, on the other hand, were directed by 
President Davis, who had been a good officer in the Mexican 
War, and then Secretary of War. They were used to outdoor 
life and military weapons, and they had a score of ports out 
of which they expected to send their cotton, and into which 
military supplies were to come from abroad. 

Most foreign observers who watched the beginning of the 
war expected that the Confederacy would succeed, but three 



336 



FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR 



things were not foreseen by the South: the fighting spirit of 
the North, the blockade of the southern coast, and the cour- 
age of Abraham Lincoln. In a few weeks 90,000 men, mostly 
volunteers, were sent to the front. Washington was protected 
by new forts manned by these volunteers, and an army was 




The campaigns of the Civil War in the East 



raised in the West which occupied St. Louis, Louisville, and 
other important points. 

The first serious fight was the battle of Bull Run (or Manas- 
sas, as it was called by the southerners), July 21, 1861. The 
Union army along Bull Run, composed chiefly of raw and un- 
trained troops, attacked the Confederates. After a hard day's 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 862 337 

fight they were beaten by equally raw and untrained southern 
troops and retreated in a rout to the shelter of Washington. 
Instead of giving way, Congress and the President were nerved 
by this defeat to prepare for a big war; and in the course of a 
year about 660,000 troops were raised by the North, and 
probably 400,000 or 500,000 in the South. 

Meanwhile the Federal navy department was bending every 
energy to build up a blockading fleet. It put into service 
old ships of war, merchant steamers, ferryboats, tugs, sailing 
vessels — anything to cruise off the southern ports and to 
capture vessels bound in and out. In a few months these 
ships had such a tight grip that the South was not able to 
send out the cotton crop of 1861 and later years, and quanti- 
ties of military stores were captured on their way into the 
Confederacy. 

271. Campaign of 1862. — The first big defeat of the Con- 
federates was in the West, where they held southern Kentucky 
and the Mississippi River below the Ohio. General Ulysses S. 
Grant, a former army officer, was put in command of a Union 
army which captured forts Henry and Donelson near each 
other on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers (February, 
1862; map page 362). That compelled the Confederates to 
give up Kentucky and to loose their hold on Missouri. Two 
months later Grant was attacked and his army forced back at 
the battle of Pittsburg Landing (or Shiloh). But the Con- 
federate commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, was killed and 
the Confederates retreated. Then the Union troops and 
gunboats pushed down the Mississippi River as far as the 
strong fortifications of Vicksburg. 

A few weeks after Shiloh, a Union fleet under Flag Officer 
(later Admiral) Farragut ascended the Mississippi from the 
Gulf of Mexico and took the city of New Orleans (April 25), 
which was held to the end of the war. This was a terrible 
blow to the South, for that city was a great cotton-shipping 
port. 

General George B. McCIellan was put in command of the 
eastern army. During the winter and spring he was drilling 
a great army at Washington, and in April he set out to capture 



338 FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Richmond, by coming up the peninsula between the James 
and York rivers. Just as he was about to move, a Confeder- 
ate ironclad called the Virginia, which was rebuilt from the 
old frigate Merrimac, came out of Norfolk. The only force 
to oppose her was a few wooden ships of war. The Merrimac 
easily defeated and sank the Congress and the Cumberland, 
whose old-fashioned cannon made no impression on her iron- 
clad hull. There was almost a panic in Washington, where 
it was expected that the Merrimac would come up the Potomac. 

Next day (March 9) a little craft called the il/o;»7o/- appeared 
at Newport News. She was built by a Swedish engineer named 
Ericsson, on a new plan, with big guns in a revolving turret. 
The Monitor dared to engage the big Merrimac in this, the 
first sea fight in history between ironclad vessels. At the end 
of the fight the Merrimac retired to Norfolk, and never again 
performed any service for the Confederacy. 

McClellan moved slowly up to a point within sight of Rich- 
mond, where for several days the two great armies fought 
each other. Joseph E. Johnston, in command of the Confeder- 
ates, was wounded, and Lee was put in command and con- 
tinued till the end of the war. McClellan was beaten with 
great loss and obliged to fall back to the James River, where 
the gunboats could support him. 

If McClellan lost his nerve, President Lincoln did not. 
Three times more during the year 1862 the Union army of 
the Potomac engaged in battle with the Confederate army of 
Virginia. Part of it was beaten at second Bull Run. At 
Antietam (September, 1862) it won a victory, but the Con- 
federate army almost held its own, and withdrew in good 
order. Finally, the Union army made a desperate attack at 
Fredericksburg, but was defeated. Meantime the western 
army under its great generals. Grant and Sherman, was 
getting ready to force open the Mississippi. 

272. Vicksburg and Gettysburg (1863). — Li the summer 
of 1863 two campaigns, one in the West and one in the East, 
virtually decided the outcome of the war. Grant was a man 
of whom Lincoln said, " I can't spare this man; he fights." 
Convinced that the fortress of Vicksburg was not too strong 



VICKSBURG AND GETTYSBURG. 



339 



to be taken, Grant circled around the city, south, east, 
north, and then west till he came up against its defenses. 




Union trenches around Shirley House at Vicksburg, 1863. From a war-time photo- 
graph. The soldiers lived in the dugouts 

The earthworks of the two armies are still preserved and make 
one of the most interesting parks in the world. After heavy 
fighting on the river and on land, Vicksburg surrendered 
(July 4). Lincoln thankfully said: "The Father of Waters 
again goes unvexed to the sea." 

In the East, after defeating the army of the Potomac at 
Chancellorsville, Lee made what proved to be the last attempt 
to penetrate th© North by a southern army. York and other 
towns in Pennsylvania were captured by the Confederates, 
and Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York were alarmed. 
General George E. Meade was put at the head of the Union 
army and threw it across the path of Lee at Gettysburg. On 
the third day of terrible fighting, Lee made his last effort, by 
ordering Pickett's division of 15,000 men to charge on the 
Union lines (July 3). The gallant effort failed; a few Con- 



340 FIRST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR 

federates reached " the high tide of the Confederacy" on the 
ridge south of the town, but the attack was hurled back. The 
next day the Confederates retreated, and from that time to 
the end of the war Lee's army was on the defensive. 

273. Summary. — This chapter describes the secession by 
the southern states and the first two years of the consequent 
Civil War. 

South Carolina led in secession. In spite of Buchanan's 
weak objections, the state withdrew December 20, i860. 
Major Anderson then moved his troops to Fort Sumter. 
Buchanan was willing to surrender that fort but was overruled. 
Six states followed South Carolina at once and all efforts to 
stop secession by compromise failed. There was a warm dis- 
cussion of secession on both sides, each accusing the other of 
unfriendly acts. 

Except the futile attempt to relieve Fort Sumter by the 
Star of the West, the Federal government did nothing until 
Lincoln became President. He decided to try to reenforce 
Fort Sumter, whereupon the Confederate government fired 
upon it and easily captured it (April 14, 1861). Four more 
southern states at once seceded, leaving twenty-three on 
the northern side. 

The United States had a very small army and it took some 
time before either side was able to go to war. In the first 
battle of Bull Run, the Union troops were defeated, and in 
1862 they were several times defeated in the East. The 
North set up a successful blockade, and in 1862 took New 
Orleans. The western army of the Union pushed down 
through Tennessee, fighting hard at Pittsburg Landing, and 
then along the Mississippi River. In 1863 Vicksburg was 
taken and Lee's army was defeated at Gettysburg. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Chadwick, Causes of Civil War, 244. — Dodge, Bird's-Eye 
View of Cixnl War. — Hart, Epoch Maps, no. 13; Wall Maps, nos. 15, 16. 
— Hosmer,. Appeal to Arms. — Sanford Am. Hist. Maps, nos. 26, 27. 

Histories. Chadwick, Causes of Civil War, chs. ix-xix. — Dodd, 
Expansion and Conflict, chs xiv, xv. — Hosmer, Appeal to Arms, chs. 
i-xiii, xv-xix. — Paxson, Civil War, 20-86, 91-101, 1 13-144. I59-I7I- 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 34 1 

— South in Building of Nation, I-III. — Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
§§ 103-106, 108, 112. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 452-460. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, IV. §§ 53-74, 102-120; Patriots and Statesmen, V. 261- 
305; Source Book, §§ 113-123; Source Readers, IV. §§29-61, 74-96. — 
James, Readings, §§ 86-88. — Johnston, Am. Orations, III. 230-329, IV. 
16. — Kieffer, Recollections of a Drummer Boy. 

Side Lights and Stories. Cable, Kincaid's Battery. — Civil War 
Stories retold from St. Nicholas. — Eggleston, Rebel's Recollections ; Master 
of Warlock. — Forrest, Student Cavaliers (Confederate army). — King, 
The Iron Brigade. — Otis, With Grant at Vickshurg. — Scollard, Ballads 
of Am. Bravery, 61-112. — Stoddard, Long Bridge Boys. — Stratemeyer, 
Defending His Flag. — Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, II. 68-185. 

Pictures. Century Co., Battles and Leaders. — Frank Leslie's Weekly. — 
Harper's Weekly. — Miller, Photog. Hist, of the Civil War. — Wilson, 
Am. People, IV. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 265) I. How did President Buchanan look on secession? 2. How 
did South Carolina act? 3 (For an essay). Account of Anderson in Fort 
Sumter. 4. How was the Confederate States of America formed? 

(§ 266) 5. What efforts were made to save the Union? 6. Why did 
the attempt at compromise fail? 7. How did secession affect Congress? 

(§ 267) 8. When and how was Kansas admitted to the Union? 9. 
What did the southern people think about secession? 10. Why did some 
northerners favor secession? 11. What was the main opinion in the North 
about secession? 12 (For an essay). Was a southern man bound to follow 
his state if it seceded? 

(§ 268) 13. What were the main reasons put forward to defend secession? 
14. What were the main northern complaints against the South? 

(§ 269) 15. How did Fort Sumter come to be significant in the quarrel? 
16. Why did Lincoln finally decide to hold the fort? 17 (For an essay). 
Account of the capture of Fort Sumter. 18. How were the border states 
divided on secession? 19. How did the northern states stand on secession? 

(§ 270) 20. What was the condition of the United States army and navy 
in 1861? 21. Why did the South expect to succeed? 22. What gave the 
North the hope of success? 23 (For an essay). Account of the battle of 
Bull Run. 24. How were the northern army and navy raised? 

(§ 271) 25. How were the Confederates pushed back in the West In 
1862? 26. How far did the North capture the Mississippi? 27 (For an 
essay). The fight between the Monitor and Merrimac. 28. What was 
the result of the campaign against Richmond? 29. What other battles 
occurred in the East during 1862? 

(§ 272) 30. How did Grant take Vicksburg? 31. What was the result 
of the battle of Gettysburg? 32 (For an essay). Pickett's charge. 



CHAPTER XXV 
THE PEOPLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR (1861-1865) 



274. Resources of the Sections. ^ The "South" in the 
spring of i86i meant the area in the contro^of the government 
at Richmond. It lay south of the Confederate mihtary line, 
which ran from lower Chesapeake Bay through Virginia, 
Kentucky, and Missouri to the Indian Ter- 
ritory. The two sections were unequal in 
population, for to the north of this line 
lived about 22,000,000 people, to the south 
of it about 9,000,000. In the North were 
about 5,000,000 able-bodied white men, in 
the South about 1,500,000. 

The sections were unequal also in the 
means of providing for and transporting 
soldiers and supplies. The North had the 
advantage in furnishing muskets, cannons, 
tents, clothing, and food for the soldiers and 
the people. The North had 22,000 miles 
of railroad, and held the interior water route 
of the Hudson River, Erie Canal, and Great 
Lakes, and also the Ohio River from Pitts- 
burgh to Cairo. The South had 9000 miles 
of railroad and (till 1862) held the lower 
Mississippi to its mouth. 

The North had iron works in New York, 

Sword and sash worn _ , . , ^-^, . iU c i-U 

by a surgeon in the Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio; the South 
Civil War i^^^ only one large iron works, that at Rich- 

mond. The North had shipyards and a great fleet of mer- 
chant vessels; the South owned and built few ships. On 
the face of it the Federal power was from two and a half to 
three times as strong as the Confederate. It is no wonder 

342 




THE SOUTHERN STATES 343 

that at the beginning the northern people felt confident of 
success. 

275. The Confederate States of America. — On the other 
hand, the South had many natural advantages for making 
war. The most obvious was a belt of rugged and wooded 
mountains stretching from the neighborhood of Washington 
to northern Alabama. The war had to be fought at the two 
ends of that barrier, and it was almost impossible to cross it 
with a large army. 

In public spirit the Confederate government could count on 
almost the whole southern people, while many peace Demo- 
crats in the North were opposed to the war. Eastern Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee were loyal to the Union, but their aid 
was offset by secessionists and Confederate soldiers living in 
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. 

The South could not draw upon the negroes for soldiers; but 
great numbers went with the armies to drive horses and cook, 
to build forts and take care of the wounded. Above all they 
tilled the fields and raised the food for the armies. If the 
negroes had ever shown any signs of rising and massacring 
the whites, the southern armies would have had to give up 
fighting the Union troops and turn back to their own homes; 
but the slaves showed a strong affection for their masters. 

Both sides had good material for soldiers. Southern 
young men were more used to outdoor life and to handling 
weapons; but it turned out that men from northern towns 
and cities stood the hardships and dangers of war as well as 
the, farmers' boys. Still, judging by previous wars, it seemed 
likely that the 2,000,000 men who were first and last enlisted 
in the northern armies would never be able to subdue the 
1,100,000 who were enrolled in the southern armies. 

276. Raising Troops. — The first need of armies is men. 
Almost every soldier of the regular army, then 16,000 strong, 
stood by the Union in 1861, while half the southern officers 
in that army resigned and joined the Confederacy, including 
most of the later commanders of armies. New soldiers had 
to be raised by both sides. Both sides followed the bad ex- 
ample of earlier wars (§ 98) and depended on volunteers or- 



344 



THE PEOPLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR 



ganized in poorly drilled militia regiments. As the war went 
on, many of the old regiments of a thousand men were worn 
down to a few hundred; instead of filling them up, new regi- 
ments were raised with new sets of officers. 

After two years of fighting not enough men came forward 
as volunteers, and both sides resorted to " conscription," 
as people called the process of enlisting able-bodied men 
whether they liked it or not. The South finally called into 
service every able-bodied white man between 17 and 50 years 

of age, which General 
Grant called "robbing 
the cradle and the 
grave." Public senti- 
ment helped conscrip- 
tion in the South and 
kept down the number 
of skulkers and de- 
serters. 

In 1863 a list was 
made up of the able- 
bodied northern ci\'il- 
ians in order that a 
certain number should 
be " drafted " by lot. 
This led to a terrible 
riot in the city of New 
York. Negroes were 
hunted through the 
streets, a colored orphan asylum was burned, and over a 
thousand people were killed or wounded. The riot was put 
down only by sending regiments of troops from the 
front. 

Yet only a few thousand men were thus added to the army. 
To avoid the draft many individuals hired substitutes to go 
into the army for them. Cities, states, and towns ofTered 
heavy bounties in money, often as much as $1200 in cash. 
This attracted a class of " bounty jumpers," who would enlist, 
desert, and enlist again to get another bounty. 




Johnny Clemm, twelve years old, the youngest boy 
in the Union army, 1862 



THE NORTHERN STATES 345 

277. The Union Government. — The President and Con- 
gress at Washington also had their troubles. Congress voted 
men and money freely, but set up a Committee on the Conduct 
of the War, which went around to the camps, took testimony, 
and drove the generals almost frantic. Congressmen wanted 
commissions as army officers for themselves and their friends. 
Some were made generals who had hardly smelled powder, 
such as Butler and Banks of Massachusetts and McClernand 
of Illinois; and several such generals turned out to be poor 
commanders. 

By the end of the war the Union learned that none but 
trained soldiers can command armies successfully ; and sooner 
or later all the large armies were placed under graduates 
of West Point — among them McClellan, Grant, Sherman, 
Sheridan, Thomas, Rosecrans, and Meade. 

Although the North had many factories and could buy 
freely in Europe, the armies were not always well supplied; 
for contracts were made in a hurry and contractors did not 
scruple to enrich themselves at the expense of the government. 
Yet this grasping for office and commissions and profits was 
far outweighed by the patriotic feeling of Congress, and by 
the sacrifices of the people in support of the war. 

278. Northern Leaders. — Congress in Washington was 
full of able men who meant to have a share in carrying on the 
government. One of the strongest Senators was Charles 
Sumner of Massachusetts, an out-and-out abolitionist and 
profound hater of all slaveholders. In the House, Vallandig- 
ham of Ohio was the leader of the peace Democrats; he was 
finally tried by court-martial and sent across the military lines 
into the Confederacy. 

Several remarkably able statesmen were in the President's 
Cabinet. William H. Seward, as Secretary of State, made 
it his business to persuade foreign nations that the North 
would surely win, and to prevent any recognition of the 
southern Confederacy as one of the nations of the world. 
Salmon P. Chase in the Treasury thought out plans for 
taxes and currency, banks and loans, and somehow man- 
aged to raise the money with which to enlist, equip, arm, and 




President Lincoln bated to sign tbe death warrant of deserters ' 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 347 

support the soldiers. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, 
had the temper of a Tartar, and was harsh, bitter, and un- 
reasonable, but was honest and a good manager. Gideon 
Welles was Secretary of the Navy and guided his department 
in the " anaconda policy " of beating the Confederacy by 
gradually shutting it off from commerce and intercourse with 
foreign nations. 

In the states several great " war governors " helped the 
government at Washington — especially Governor Andrew 
of Massachusetts, Governor Morgan of New York, Governor 
Brough of Ohio, Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, Governor 
Morton of Indiana, and Governor Yates of Illinois. Minis- 
ters such as Henry Ward Beecher, editors such as Horace 
Greeley, poets such as Longfellow, Lowell, and Whittier, all 
helped to rouse the heart of the northern people and to keep 
them up to their work. Among the writers of humor the 
most amusing was " Artemus Ward," who said that he was 
willing to sacrifice all his wife's male relatives to the cause of 
the Union. 

279. Abraham Lincoln. — By common consent Abraham 
Lincoln is the greatest American of the Civil War period. 
Lincoln never forgot that he was born in Kentucky, and he 
understood the southern people; but in his make-up and point 
of view he was a strong westerner. Yet when he came to 
the presidency he was thought by many, even in the West, 
to be only a cheap country lawyer. 

There was little in his training and habits to suggest a 
great man. His clothes did not fit him; he was fond of telling 
funny stories; he would see all his callers. Poor and friend- 
less soldiers, and mothers of soldiers, could always find their 
way to the great President, and he would help them. He 
hated to sign the death warrant of deserters, for, said he, 
" I am trying to evade the butchering business." 

Upon this backwoods rail-splitter fell the duty of com- 
manding two million soldiers, and he showed good judgment 
in military affairs, though he always deferred to the generals. 
He kept writing to them, urging them to stick to their work. 
For instance, " If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, 

hart's sch. hist. — 20 



348 



THE PEOPLE DURING THE CI\'n. WAR 




South Carolina, I5C0 



and the tail of it between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, 
the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not 
break him? " Again, " Follow on his flank, . . . shorten- 
ing your lines while he lengthens his. . . . If he stays where 
he is, fret him and fret him." And 
again to Grant, " I have seen your 
dispatch expressing your unwillingness 
to break your hold where you are. 
MB- n -^^^H Neither am I willing. Hold on with 
1^' — -- X^^^JH a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as 
« c .u^. 7^^^^ much as possible." 

■^ KnnfVi Carolina. I5OO _ ' 

Lincoln was the best politician of his 
time, and the country came to learn 
that this tall, lank man in the White 
House made up his own mind, and 
that he could not be frightened or 
driven out of his policies. In the elec- 
tion of 1864 he was easily elected over 
General McClcllan, who was the Demo- 
cratic candidate. 

Lincoln's greatness was due chiefly 
to his wonderful power of knowing 
what was going on in the hearts of 
the people. His brief speeches arc full 
of noble spirit, of thoughts as true for 
the South as for the North. " No- 
where in the world," said he, " is pre- 
sented a government of so much liberty 
and cciuality. To the humblest and 
poorest amongst us are held out the 
highest privileges and positions." 
" Government of the people, by the 
people, for the people shall not perish 
from the earth." . " With malice toward none; with charity for 
all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." 
280. The Confederate Government. — The Confederate 
"provisional Constitution" drawn up hastily in 1861, and 
the " permanent Constitution " adopted by state ratifying 




Official, I'-O:) 
Confederate flags 



THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 



349 



conventions in 1862, were strong for state rights, and they 
recognized the right of secession ; but during the war the gov- 
ernment at Richmond was most in the minds of the southern 
people. The first necessity was to beat the northern army. 
For that purpose much of the power was centered in the hands 
of President Davis. The two houses of Congress were weak 
and usually sat in secret session. 

The Confederate government was always in money diffi- 
culties. It could not ship enough cotton through the block- 
ade to Europe to fur- 
nish needed funds and 
make purchases. 
Everything was bor- 
rowed that could be 
borrowed, at home and 
abroad. The govern- 
ment also issued hun- 
dreds of millions of 
dollars in paper money, 
which lost value till it 
was a saying in Rich- 
mond that a lady car- 
ried her money to 
market in a basket and 
brought home her pur- 
chase in her pocket. 

281. Southern 
Leaders. — The South 
was so absorbed in 

the war that the ablest men sought service in the field. 
Two of them stand out among the great Americans, Lee and 
Jackson. Robert E. Lee was a member of a wealthy Virginia 
family. He studied at West Point, served in the Mexican 
War, and in 1861 was ofifered the command of the Union 
army. But he "followed his state" and resigned from the 
army, quickly rising to be the highest general in the Con- 
federate service. Brave, modest, frank, humane, Lee was a 
model soldier and the type of a Christian gentleman. He 




Stonewall " Jackson. From a photograph, 1861 



350 



THE PEOPLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR 



gathered about him a fine body of corps commanders, including 
such men as Early, Longstreet, Ewell, A. P. Hill, and " Jeb " 
Stuart, a dashing commander of cavalry; and they served 
with him throughout the war. 

Another remarkable soldier and unusual man was Thomas 
J. Jackson, commonly called "Stonewall" Jackson, because 
at Bull Run somebody said, that Jackson's men stood " like 
a stone w'all." He was a very religious man and strict with 
himself and with his troops. He is renowned for the length 

and quickness of his 
marches, so that his 
men came to be 
called " Stonewall 
Jackson's foot ca\'- 
alry." He was bold 
— almost rash — 
and several times at- 
tacked the Federal 
lines when he was 
supposed to be miles 
away. Jackson was 
accidentally killed 
by his own men at 
the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville (1863). 

Jefferson Davis 
was the most pow'cr- 
ful member of the 
Confederate government and was a strong force in the struggle. 
His Cabinet was always rather weak, and since he was an 
experienced military man, few people disputed his judgment 
about military movements. All the generals were bound to 
obey him, as their commander in chief. The labors and the 
nervous strain of his office told upon him. He had few 
confidants and intimate friends; and when the tide turned 
against the Confederacy, some of his people held him respon- 
sible for the defeat which he had striven with all his power 
to prevent. 




Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry " 



NORTHERN PEOPLE 



351 



282. Northern People at Home. — The war was a part of 
the hfe of every city, town, and village in the North. While 
one brother fought, another brother carried on the farm or 




During the Civil War envelopes 
bearing patriotic emblems 
and cartoons were much used 



the Store, and took care of the family. 
While the husband was with his regi- 
ment, the wife drew her little children 
around her and waited for news. Ladies' Aid Societies were 
formed to make haversacks and mittens for the soldiers, to 
send jellies and delicacies to the sick, and to provide lint 
and blankets for the wounded. Young ladies volunteered 
as nurses and lived through the horrors of hospitals full of 
men torn to pieces by shot and shell. Children played soldier, 
built little forts, and made imitation paper money. Sanitary 
Fairs were held for the benefit of the soldiers in all the large 
cities, with restaurants and concerts and theatricals and 
speeches, and the sale of knickknacks at any prices that 
visitors would pay. 

In the field the Sanitary Commission and Christian Com- 
mission followed the armies and helped take care of the sick 
and wounded. After great battles, thousands of wounded 
men were sent back to the hospitals, carried in jolting wagons, 
in springless freight cars, on the open decks of steamboats, 
feverish, starved, thirsty, delirious, screaming with awful 
pain. You cannot have war without such sufi'ering. Twice 
as many men died of disease as of wounds; for though there 



352 THE PEOPLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR 

were doctors and medical supplies, nobody then knew how 
to stop such diseases as malaria, typhoid fever, and yellow 
fever. 

Throughout the land, ministers preached from their pulpits 
urging the people to support the war. War meetings were 
held and, when thtjse present were aroused, they were asked 
to come forward and enlist in the army. Letters were mailed 
in patriotic envelopes bearing pictures of soldiers and cannons, 
or the American eagle. The whole North was aflame with 
excitement and hatred of the " rebels." 

283. Southern People at Home. — A like passionate spirit 
filled the southern heart, a like excitement, a like hatred of 
the " Yankees." Nevertheless the soldiers of the two armies 
in the field were not so unfriendly; on both sides they learned 
that the men in the other uniform were not thieves and cut- 
throats. The pickets often had jolly talks across the lines 
when " Johnny Reb " would bring out his tobacco and 
trade with " Yank " for coffee (page 355). Whenever either 
army was in the enemy's country, horses and cattle were car- 
ried away, and some houses were looted. But the men of both 
sides were kind to the women and children of their enemies. 

The war came even closer home to the South than to the 
North, because nearly all the active men were in the army. 
It was fearful to be at the front and feel a bullet crashing 
through the bones of the arm or leg; but it was almost as 
bad for a girl to wait in a far-off country town for the weekly 
stage, bringing the news of the last battle, and to run down 
the column of killed and wounded till her finger rested on 
the name of a brother or a lover. The southern women, like 
the northern, did everything they knew how to do for their 
brave boys at the front; and they saw to it that few of the 
boys lost the chance to be brave by failing to enlist. 

The South suffered for want of the usual food and clothing 
because the blockade kept out most of the luxuries, and the 
army needed a large part of the necessaries. When people 
wore out their imported dresses, they had to wear calico or 
homespun. Toward the end of the war the railroads were so 
broken up that it was hard to carry food, and both the soldiers 



FINANCES 353 

and the people at home suffered for the commonest suppHes. 
Yet to the last the South never lost its pluck, and it was 
beaten at the end only because it had expended all the avail- 
able means of the country in money, supplies, and men. 

284. Greenbacks, Gold, and Silver (i 861-1865). — The Civil 
War raised many new business questions which deeply inter- 
ested the country. The first was that of currency (§ 82), 
the money that passed from hand to hand. When the war 
broke out, gold and silver very soon disappeared from cir- 
culation, for everybody wanted to keep them as long as 
possible. The banks " suspended specie payments," by refus- 
ing to redeem their notes, and the only money in circulation 
was state bank notes, and postage stamps for small change. 

As a quick means of raising money, the United States 
government issued " legal tender notes " (1862), commonly 
called " greenbacks." These were paper notes which every- 
body was obliged to receive in payment of debts. The only 
thing that gave to the notes a value was the promise of the 
United States to redeem (§ 185) them sometime. As the pros- 
pects of success in the war began to look dark, the promise 
seemed doubtful, and hence the value of a dollar note became 
less than that of a gold dollar. Before the war was over, paper 
money fell so low that a greenback dollar was not worth more 
than sixty cents in gold. The United States set up a system 
of national bank notes to take the place of the state bank 
currency. These notes circulated everywhere in the North 
alongside the greenbacks. 

285. Summary. — This chapter describes the condition of 
the people, the armies, and the governments on both sides, 
outside of the military movements, and sketches the personal 
character of some of the principal leaders of both North and 
South. 

The North had a decided advantage in numbers, in able- 
bodied white men, in transportation, and in manufactures. 
The South had the advantage of situation and of habits of 
outdoor life, and it made some use of the negro population. 
Both sides first called for volunteers and later compelled men 
to serve by conscription. The northern Congress interfered 



354 THE PEOPLE DITRING TFfE CIVIL W.\R 

with the army and some unfit civilians were made generals. 
The successful commanders were nearly all graduates of West 
Point. There were many strong men in Congress, the Cabi- 
net, and the state governments, but the greatest American 
citizen of this period was Abraham Lincoln, who showed 
genius in both administrative and military affairs, and laid 
down noble principles of popular government. In the South 
most of the distinguished men served in the army. Jefferson 
Davis was the leading figure as President and actual com- 
mander of the armies. 

The burden of the war went back to the homes on both 
sides and every effort was made to aid in the support and 
comfort of the troops. The civilians suffered almost as much 
as the soldiers. Both sides grew accustomed to paper money, 
which in the North was, at one time, worth only 60 per cent 
as much as gold. 

REFERENCES 

Histories. Bassett, Un. Stales, ch. xxvii. — Elson, Side Lights, IL 
ch. iii. — Hosmer, Outcome of Civil War, chs. i, iv, xv, xvi. — Moore, 
Industrial Hist., 363-368. — Paxson, Civil War, 189-207; New Nation, 
ch. i. — South in Building of Nation, IV. 487-552, V. 146-497 passim. — 
Southworth, Builders of Our Country, IL ch. xxiii. 

Sources. Hart, Contemporaries, IV. §§75-101, 121; Source Readers, 
IV. §§99-109. — Hill, Liberty Docs., chs. xxi, xxii. — James, Readings, 
§ 92. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 108-144; Select Statutes, 
nos. 1-48. — Old South Leaflets, no. 182, 192. 

Side Lights and Stories. Alcott, Hospital Sketches. — Andrews, Per- 
fect Tribute (Lincoln). — Brooks, Washington in Liticoln's Time. — 
Chestnut, Diary from Dixie. — Churchill, The Crisis. — Eggleston, 
Southern Soldier Stories. — Hale, Man without a Country. — Harris, On 
the Plantation. — Holmes, My Hunt after "the Captain." — Lowell, 
Poems. — Page, Among the Camps; Two Little Confederates. — Stoddard, 
Battle of New York (Draft riots). — Trowbridge, Cudjo's Cave (Tenn.). — 
Wheelwright, War Children (North). — VVhittier, Poems. 

Pictures. Mentor, serial no. 52. — See also refs. to ch. xxiv, above. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 274) I. What was meant by the "South" in 1861? 2. How did the 
sections compare in population and resources? 3. How did they compare 
in transportation? 




Kortbem and Southern pickets exchanging supplies 



356 THE PEOPLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR 

(§ -75) 4- What were the natural advantages of the South for making 
war? 5. How did the negroes aid the South? 6. How did the sections 
compare in fighting men? 

(§ 276) 7. How were officers and soldiers raised during the war? 8. 
How did conscription and draft work in the North and the South? 9. 
Who were the bounty jumpers? 10 (For an essay). The draft riots in 
the city of New York. 

(§ 277) II. What were the difficulties of the Union government in carry- 
ing on war? 12. How were the commanding generals selected? 

(§ 278) 13. Mention some of the leaders in Congress. 14. Who were 
Lincoln's principal advisers in the Cabinet? 15. Mention some of the 
principal leaders in the country at large. 

(§ 279) 16. What made it hard for Lincoln to win public confidence? 
17 (For an essay). Life of President Lincoln in the White House. 18. How 
did Lincoln carry on the war? 19. How was he reelected President? 20. 
What made him great? 

(§ 280) 21. How was the southern Confederacy governed? 22. How 
did it raise funds? 

(§ 281) 23 (For an essay). Personal life and character of Robert E. 
Lee. 24. Mention some other Confederate commanders. 25. What made 
"Stonewall" Jackson great? 26. How did Jefferson Davis carry on the 
Confederacy? 

(§ 282) 27. How did the northern people at home aid in the war? 
28 (For an essay). Home life during the war. 29. W^hat was done for 
the sick and wounded? 30. What was done to arouse public sentiment? 

(§283) 31. How did the troops behave in the field? 32. W'hat did the 
southern women do for their cause? 33. What sort of privations did the 
South suffer? 34 (For an essay). Life in a southern city during the war. 

(§ 284) 35. W^hat was the northern currency early in the war? 36. 
What were legal tender notes and why did they lose value? 



CHAPTER XXVI 
CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR (1863-1865) 

286. First Steps of Emancipation (1861-1862). — Though 
the main cause of the war was the difference of opinion 
between the North and the South with regard to slavery, both 
sections for a time kept that issue in the background. Presi- 
dent Lincoln feared that otherwise the border states would 
join the Confederacy. 

Nevertheless the war brought about many difficult ques- 
tions regarding slavery. The first was what to do with the 
fugitive slaves who came into the Union camps. Notwith- 
standing the Fugitive Slave Law, antislavery officers would 
not return them to their owners; and General B. F. Butler 
at Fort Monroe called them " contraband of war." They 
were not really that, but the name contraband stuck to them. 
In the second place. Congress took the South on its own 
ground that the slaves were property, by passing acts under 
which slaves were "confiscated " if used in aid of the war, 
or if owned by " rebels " as the Confederates were called. 
That practically meant that such slaves were set free. 

Congress proved to be more radical than Lincoln at the 
beginning of the war, and in 1862 emancipated all the slaves 
in the District of Columbia, paying the masters $300 for each 
slave. Then Congress, in defiance of the Dred Scott decision 
(§ 259), abolished slavery in every territory, without compen- 
sation to the owners. Later (1864) Congress repealed the 
Fugitive Slave Law, so that not even border-state masters 
could recover their runaway slaves. 

Everybody knew that in wars directed against slavehold- 
ing countries, the general of an invading army might declare 
the slaves free. Two Union generals, Fremont and Hunter, 
issued proclamations freeing the slaves within their military 

357 



358 CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR 

districts, but Lincoln felt it necessary to cancel their orders. 
He thought it best to persuade the border-state people to 
set their slaves free and to accept a payment for them from 
the government. 

287. Emancipation by the President (1862-1863). — In 
the fall of 1862 Lincoln felt that something new was needed, 
for things were not going well for the North. The western 
troops were checked on the Mississippi River, and the eastern 
army was again beaten at Bull Run (§ 271). France and 
England seemed on the point of recognizing the Confederacy 
as an independent nation, and that might end the blockade. 
And it was becoming hard to raise the necessary troops, 
though there were thousands of negroes within the Federal 
lines who could be made into soldiers. 

Hence Lincoln drew up a Proclamation of Emancipation 
(September, 1862), announcing that, unless the southern 
people yielded, he would soon set free all the slaves within 
the seceding states. Lincoln's own explanation was, " We 
had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, 
or lose the game." The Proclamation of Emancipation was 
to apply only to those parts of the United States which were 
behind the Confederate lines, where the government could 
not reach the slaves. It did not apply to the border states 
which were loyal to the Federal government. Still slavery 
soon ceased to be of much consequence in these states, for 
thousands of slaves ran away and nobody would bring them 
back. 

Between 1863 and 1865 four states prohibited slavery on 
their own account. Three of them were Missouri, Maryland, 
and Tennessee, which were occupied in great part by Federal 
troops, so that the secessionists and slaveholders had little 
chance to protest. The western counties of Virginia, lying 
between the Shenandoah Valley and the Ohio Ri\'er, had long 
been discontented, and took this opportunity to set up a 
separate state for themselves. Congress admitted them as 
the state of West Virginia in 1863 — the 35th state with 
390,000 people — really as a punishment to the people of 
the main state of Virginia for joining in secession; and it was 



EMANCIPATION BY THE PRESIDENT 



359 




Monument to Colonel Robert G. Shaw on Boston Common. 
In 1863 Col. Shaw led the first negro regiment sent to 
the field from the free states 



made a condition that the new state constitution should pro- 
vide for emancipation. 

As soon as Lincoln's proclamation was issued, the enlist- 
ment of negro troops 
began, partly in the 
North but mostly 
among the refugees 
in the South. In 
the course of the 
war 186,000 black 
soldiers were added 
to the army. The 
war was so close that 
they probably 
turned the scale in 
favor of the North. 

A final Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation was issued January i, 1863. It applied 
to all the eleven seceding states, except Tennessee and small 
parts of Virginia and Louisiana which were occupied by Union 
troops. The South jeered at a proclamation which they said 
could never be carried out, and for some time it was not very 
popular in the North. 

Lincoln came slowly to this policy of emancipation, but 
he felt that the time had arrived to break up the system 
of slavery. He later said of himself: " I am naturally anti- 
slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot 
remember when I did not so think and feel. ... I have 
done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment 
and feeling on slavery. ... If God now wills the removal 
of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well 
as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that 
wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest 
and revere the justice and goodness of God." 

288. War on the Sea (1861-1865). — When the war broke 
out, the Union kept most of the vessels of the navy. The 
Confederates were obliged to rebuild old vessels and to con- 
struct new ones under great hindrances. Nevertheless, they 



36o 



CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR 



fitted out several powerful ironclads, of which the Merrimac, 
which they renamed the Virginia, was one (§271). 

The Americans in all their previous wars had freely cap- 
tured the enemy's merchant ships (§ 102). When a few small 
vessels were armed by the Confederates in 1861 and began to 
capture Union merchantmen, the Unionists forgot all past 
experience and insisted that the Confederate warships and 
privateers were nothing but pirates. On the other side, the 

Confederates com- 
plained bitterly of 
the blockade, which 
grew more and more 
close every month. 
To evade it, block- 
ade runners were 
built, small swift 
steamers painted 
lead color, which 
plied back and 
forth from the 
British West Indies 
to Charleston and 
Wilmington and a 
few other ports; 
but many of them 
were captured. In 
1864 Admiral Farragut closed the port of Mobile to the block- 
ade runners. 

The United States government was at last obliged to admit 
that regular cruisers and privateers were not pirates; but 
the blockade made it hard for the Confederates to send out 
commerce destroyers. Hence their agents in England bought 
old vessels and ordered new ones in British shipyards, and 
commissioned them as ships of war. The most fainous was 
the Alabama, a wooden screw steamer of about 1000 tons. 
Although the United States minister, Charles Francis Adams, 
demanded that she be seized, the British government delayed, 
and the vessel slipped out of port. Guns and a crew were 




Statue of Admiral Farragut by Saint-Gaudens, Madison 
Square, New York 



WAR ON THE SEA 361 

sent to her from England, and she was the means of capturing 
68 American merchant ships. As these prizes could liot be sent 
in to Confederate ports, many of them were burned at sea. 

The northern people were for several reasons bitter against 
England: (i) for showing friendship to the Confederacy; 

(2) for allowing ships of war to be built in a neutral country; 

(3) for not seizing 
the Alabama when 
she came into 
British colonial 
ports. In 1864 the 
Alabama was sunk 
in a sea fight off 
the French coast, 
by the United 
States ship Kear- 
sarge; but several 
other Confederate 
ships of war re- 
mained at sea and 
made many cap- 
tures. All this time 
the United States 
was buying all sorts 




Merchant ship shelled by the Confederate cruiser Alabama 



of military supplies, except ships, from England and other 
countries. Though the ruling' aristocracy in England favored 
the Confederacy, the middle class and the working men sided 
with the North; and neither Great Britain nor any other 
nation came to the point of recognizing the southern Confed- 
eracy as independent. 

289. Campaigns of 1 863-1 864. — Soon after the victories 
of Vicksburg and Gettysburg (§272) a great Union army 
under Rosecrans was badly defeated by the Confederates 
under Bragg at Chickamauga (September, 1863), just south 
of the Tennessee River. General Thomas with the left wing 
of the Union army stood his ground, and earned the name of 
the " Rock of Chickamauga." The whole army withdrew 
to Chattanooga, where General Grant was put in command, 



362 



CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR 



with Sherman and Thomas next to him. In three days' 
hard fighting against the army of Bragg, the Union troops 
took Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge above Chatta- 
nooga. Thereupon the Confederate army retreated, but 
though beaten it was still in the field. 

When fighting was resumed in the spring of 1864, Grant 
was put in command of all the Union land forces, and he made 
Sherman commander of the western army. Grant took 




Western and southern campaigns in the Civil War 

personal command in the East and marched southward in 
May. In a few hours he met Lee's army in a piece of rough 
country, called the Wilderness, north of Richmond (May 5). 
In several days' fierce fighting he found himself blocked, and 
drew back. This was the eighth time the two armies had 
met, and never yet had the Army of the Potomac been ordered 
forward after such a check; but Grant simply turned to the 
left and started south again, fighting battle after battle, 



END OF THE WAR 363 

until he stood before Petersburg, a few miles from Richmond 
(map, page 336). In six weeks Grant lost about 55,000 men, 
but he was a commander of wonderful courage and endurance., 
plain, simple, and dogged; and he simply held on. 

Meanwhile, Sherman was fighting his way from Chatta- 
nooga south through the mountains to Atlanta, opposed by 
General Joseph Johnston. Sherman had a decidedly larger 
force, and showed great ability in driving the enemy before 
him with few pitched battles. He reached and captured 
Atlanta. 

While Grant was besieging Petersburg, Sherman made a 
" march to the sea." With 60,000 men he started from At- 
lanta, crossed the state of Georgia, and came out at the port 
of Savannah. The rest of his army he left under Thomas, 
but a bold attack by Hood compelled part of it to retreat 
northward. At Nashville, Hood was at last defeated in a 
fierce battle (December, 1864), and the fighting in the West 
was practically ended. 

290. End of the War (1865). — In the early period of the 
war the Confederate cavalry was much the better. Such 
leaders as " Jeb " Stuart and Forrest raided the Union lines, 
destroyed wagon trains, and even made some hurried forays 
into the northern states. As the Union cavalry improved, 
it caused the same kind of trouble to the other side. General 
Philip H. Sheridan, who began as an infantry officer, came 
to have command of a cavalry corps, then of an army of 
50,000 men. He was a hard fighter and will always be re- 
membered for his campaigns and harrying of the country in 
the Shenandoah Valley. 

During the winter of 1864-65 the Union troops lay in the 
trenches around Petersburg, their lines within a few hundred 
yards of the Confederate works. In the spring, Lee at last 
abandoned Petersburg and with it Richmond. After six days' 
pursuit Grant hemmed in Lee's army, and on April 9, 1865, 
the 27,000 troops that remained with the Confederate colors 
surrendered at Appomattox. 

Sherman at the same time was marching up from Georgia 
through the Carolinas. After his army took the city of 



364 



CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR 



Columbia it was burned, cither by accident or by men acting 
without orders. Sherman was furious toward the enemies 
who had fought so long, and he took little pains to protect 
the countryside as he passed; but there is no evidence that he 

intended to destroy the 
city of Columbia. 

Johnston's army, the 
last considerable Con- 
federate force still in 
arms, surrendered to 
Sherman at Raleigh, 
North Carolina. Some 
hot-heads had talked 
about " dying in the 
last ditch," but Lee 
and Johnston gave the 
example of accepting 
the defeat and its con- 
sequences. President 
Davis was captured 
and made a prisoner; 
but Grant would not 
allow any of the Con- 
federate military 
ofificers to be arrested or harmed for their service in the 
Confederacy. 

On an evening almost exactly four years from the firing on 
Fort Sumter, Lincoln was shot by a bad and reckless man, 
who had the folly to think that it would please the South to 
remove the President. In fact, he murdered the man who 
at this critical moment best understood the South, who was 
most anxious to restore it to the Union, and who could have 
carried the northern people with him. The whole North was 
plunged into gloom, for Lincoln's death was like the loss of a 
member of five million families. 

291. Cost of the War. — Nobody can measure the real 
cost of the Civil War. Who can put a money value on the 
miseries of the sick, wounded, and dying, the crushing grief of 



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COST OF THE WAR 365 

their families, and the despair of widows and orphans? But 
we can calculate the number of lives sacrificed and the money 
expended. 

In that part of the South which joined in secession there 
were about 1,400,000 grown men and about 270,000 boys who 
came to be old enough to serve before the war was over. 
Out of these 1,670,000 white men, the astonishing number 
of 1,100,000 to 1,250,000 enlisted in the Confederate army 
for longer or shorter terms. It is a reason for pride to the 
whole southern people that three fourths of their white men 
went into the army; there is hardly anything like it in his- 
tory. It was possible only because the slaves stayed at home 
to do the hard work. If General Lee had had his way, some 
of the negroes would have been armed and put into the field 
in the last months of the war. 

On the northern side the able-bodied adults, with the boys 
who came to military age, numbered over 5,500,000, or nearly 
three and one half times the white men of the South. Out 
of this number more than 2,000,000 individuals enlisted, in- 
cluding nearly 200,000 negroes; of these many reenlisted, so 
that about 3,000,000 enlistments are recorded. The number 
of 5,500,000 includes about 1,000,000 adult foreigners who 
were in the northern states when the war broke out, and of 
whom probably a fourth enlisted. 

The death loss of the southern army was 94,000 killed in 
action and. died from wounds, and 164,000 died from disease, 
a total of 258,000. On the Union side the death loss was 
360,000. Counting the later deaths of wounded and diseased 
men, it would not be too high to put the total cost of the war 
at about 800,000 lives. 

The North spent about 4000 million dollars, including the 
expense of the states and local governments, while the South 
spent the value of about 1500 million dollars measured in gold. 
The northern states saw few invasions, and suffered little 
from destruction of property ; but wherever the armies marched 
in the South, houses and especially stores of cotton were 
burned; and at the end the South was almost drained of 
money, goods, and supplies. Besides the 5500 millions paid 

hart's SCH. hist. — 21 



366 CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR 

out by the two governments there was a loss of the productive 
labor of those who were in the war, so that the total money 
cost was not far from 7000 millions of dollars. 

The slave owners, both in the seceding and in the loyal 
border states, as a result of the war lost slave property valued 
at about 2000 millions. This was not a real money loss to the 
South for the former slaves were still there; they continued to 
w^ork on the land, and the South continued to profit by their 
work, which was all that made them \aluable as slaves. When 
things settled down, the former owners got a smaller share of 
the annual product and the former slaves got a larger share, but 
in the end the total to be di\ided was larger. One of the rea- 
sons why the South has become so well off since the war is that 
free labor makes a country richer than slave labor. If slaves 
and slave labor could make the South really wealthy, what 
was it that gave greater wealth to the northern states at that 
time and eilso to the South after it lost slavery? 

The loss of men and money and labor was the price w^hich 
the country paid to settle once for all two questions: (i) 
whether slavery should continue anywhere in the United 
States; (2) whether the secession of a state from the Union 
should be accepted as allowable under the Federal system of 
government. Since that time nobody has wanted to restore 
slavery; and everybody is now sure that if any group of 
states should secede at any time hereafter, the rest of the 
states would unite to deny an)' right of secession, and would 
support the Federal government in subduing the would-be 
seceders. 

292. Summary. — This chapter is devoted to the emanci- 
pation of the slaves, and the conclusion of the Civil War. 

During the war slavery ceased in the United States except 
in Delaware, Kentucky, and Tennessee, (i) Thousands of 
slaves escaped from their masters in the border and seceding 
states. (2) Congress abolished slavery in the District of 
Columbia and the territories. (3) By Lincoln's Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, slavery was declared abolished in the 
eleven seceding states, except Tennessee and small parts of 
Virginia and Louisiana. This action applied to negroes inside 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 367 

the Confederate lines, so it would have had no effect if the 
Federal arms had not been victorious. (4) Missouri, Mary- 
land, Tennessee, and West Virginia emancipated their slaves. 

Fighting went on at sea throughout the war. The South 
built a few ships of war and bought or built others in England, 
especially the Alabama, which made numerous captures. 

From August, 1863, to April, 1865, fighting continued, 
both east and west. After a series of hard battles in and 
near Chattanooga, the way was opened for a campaign 
southward to Atlanta and thence to Savannah, so that the 
Confederacy was almost cut in two. In the East, Grant 
took command of the Federal army, which was hardly a 
single day out of gunshot range from the enemy from May, 
1864, to April, 1865. After desperate fighting in the fields 
and the trenches, Lee's army was worn down till it had to 
surrender. Lincoln was assassinated a few days after the 
end of the war. 

More than 3,000,000 men served on one side or the other, 
of whom about 800,000 lost their lives, and the war cost 7000 
millions of dollars. The main efifects were to destroy slav- 
ery, and to prove that the right of secession could never be 
admitted by the Union. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Epoch Maps, no. 8; Wall Maps, nos. 16, 17. — Hosmer, 
Outcome of Civil War. — Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, nos. 27, 28. 

Histories. Dodd, Expansion and Conflict, ch. xvi. — Elson, Side 
Lights, II. ch. vi. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., ch. xxiii. — Hosmer, 
Outcome of Civil War, chs. ii, iii, v-xiv, xvii. — Paxson, Civil War, 86- 
90, 101-112, 144-158, 171-189, 208-247. — Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
§§ 110-116. 

Sources. Harding, Select Orations, no. 26. — Hart, Contemporaries, 
IV, §§ 122-140; Source Book, §§ 120-126; Source Readers, IV. §§ 18- 
28, 62-98. — James, Readings, §§ 89-91. 

Side Lights and Stories. Altsheler, Before the Dawn. — Brady, On 
the Old " Kearsarge." — ^ Coffin, Redeeming the Republic; Freedom Tri- 
umphant. — Collingwood, Blue and Grey. — Cooke, Mohun. — Gordy, 
Am. Leaders and Heroes, ch. xxv. — Goss, Jed. — Scollard, Ballads of 
Am. Bravery. ^So\ey, Sailor Boys of '61. — Thomas, Captain Phil. — 
Tomlinson, Young Blockaders. — Trent, R. E. Lee. — WaUington, Am. 
Hist, by Am. Poets, II. 186-274. 

Pictvires. Century Co., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. — See 
also refs. to ch. xxiv, above. 



368 CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR 

QUESTIONS 

(§286) I. How did the war bring out new slavery questions? 2. What 
were the confiscation acts? 3. What action did Congress take against 
slavery? 4 (For an essay). F"ugitive slaves in Union camps. 5. Why 
did Lincoln not free the slaves in the field of war? 

(§ 287) 6. What reasons were there for freeing the slaves in 1862? 7. 
What was the Proclamation of Emancipation? 8. What states emanci- 
pated the slaves during the war? 9. When and how was West Virginia 
admitted to the Union? 10. What military aid did the negroes render to 
the North? 11. What was the final Proclamation of Emancipation? 12. 
Why did Lincoln emancipate the slaves? 

(§288) 13. How did the South build a navy? 14. How was the block- 
ade evaded? 15 (For an essay). Life on a blockade runner. 16. What 
were the Confederate commerce destroyers? 17 (For an essay). Life 
on the ship Alabama. 18. Why did the North think England unfriendly? 

(§289) 19. Why was Thomas called the "Rock of Chickamauga"? 20. 
How were the Confederates driven out of Chattanooga? 21. How did 
Grant and Lee fight the campaign of 1864? 22 (For an essay). Inci- 
dents of Sherman's march to the sea. 23. What were the last battles in 
the West? 

(§290) 24. How was the Union cavalry developed? 25 (For an essay). 
Surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox. 26. How did Sherman march 
through the Carolinas? 27. Why was no Confederate officer punished 
after the war? 28. How did the war finally come to an end? 29. Why 
was Lincoln's death a misfortune to the South? 

(§ 291) 30. How did the white men of the South take part in the war? 
31. How did the men of the North take part? 32. What was the death 
loss? 33. What was the money cost? 34. How did the war affect slave 
property? 35. What questions were settled by the war? 



CHAPTER XXVII 
RECONSTRUCTION (1865-1869) 

293. What was Reconstruction ? — When the fighting 
ceased and the southern soldiers went home in the spring of 
1865, it seemed to many people in both North and South 
that the trouble was all over. The effort to break up the 
Union had failed; the Union had been in existence all the 
time; all that was necessary was to fill up the Senate and the 
House by admitting members from the seceding states, 
which for four years had not been represented there. 
Then the country was to go on as though nothing had 
happened. 

It soon became clear that the problem was not so simple 
as all that. Great changes had come about in the South. 
The negroes were free ; the southern people and the southern 
states had gone through a terrible crisis. The Union was 
shaken and battered and needed " reconstruction." It was 
like a great engine that had gone through a fire and couid 
not work again until the injured parts were restored. Yet the 
Union could not be reconstructed without taking into ac- 
count the following difficulties: 

(i) The southern states were not in the same condition as 
the northern states, for, during four years, they had ceased 
to act as members of the Union, and most of them had made 
new constitutions which recognized the southern Confederacy. 
They would have to remake those constitutions before they 
could again fit into their old places. 

(2) The white men of the South had nearly all taken some 
part in the Civil War. Many northern men did not trust 
them to aid in a genuine reconstruction; and some north- 
erners thought that the leaders ought to be tried and exe- 
cuted for treason. 

369 



370 RECONSTRUCTION 

(3) The emancipated negroes in the South, commonly 
called " freedmen " at that time, were very ignorant and 
helpless. Thousands of them had wandered from their home 
plantations and it wiis hard to get them back to their regular 
work. The Xorth thought that they needed aid and protec- 
tion from the Federal government. 

In the North the only authorities having the actual power 
to reconstruct the Union were the President and Congress. 
In Congress the Republicans had a large majority as long as 
the southern members were kept out; hence they could do 
what they liked against the Democratic minority. The 
President, however, had the veto power and it required two 
thirds of both Houses to pass a law over his veto. 

Much, therefore, depended on the new President, Andrew 
Johnson, who as Vice President took Lincoln's place. He 
was a southerner, from east Tennessee, which remained loyal 
to the Union. By origin he was a " poor white " (§ 196), and 
he hated the wealthy slaveholders and believed that secession 
had been a slaveholders' plot against the interests of the 
small farmers, who made up the larger part of the popula- 
tion. His plan was to bring the southern states back into 
the Union by putting the state offices in the hands of the 
poor whites; and the former planters were to be shut out 
altogether on the ground that the\' were " rebels." 

294. Reconstruction of the States. — President Johnson 
argued that the states could not secede (§ 265) and had never 
really seceded, and therefore must still be in the Union. Fol- 
lovv^ing out a plan which Lincoln had favored, he directed that 
in each of the former Confederate states a new constitution 
should be adopted and new members of Congress should be 
chosen. When Congress met in December, 1865, members 
presented themselves from nearly all these states. To John- 
son's mind the Union thus was restored, and could go for- 
ward just as it did before the war. 

Congress did not like that idea, and decided not to admit 
these members-elect. The President tried to check the action 
of Congress; but the Republicans passed fifteen bills over 
his veto. Among them was a Reconstruction Act (1867) 



SOUTHERN STATES AND PEOPLE 37 1 

under which the seceding states were forbidden to come back 
until they had allowed the negroes to vote in elections and 
had shut out the old white leaders from politics. Meantime 
the South was governed by generals of the army, backed by 
United States troops. Some of the northern leaders, espe- 
cially Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, wanted to punish 
the people of the southern states by these hard conditions; 
others felt that the southerners could not be trusted to do 
justice to the negro or to perform their duties to the Union. 

Slowly new legislatures were chosen, partly by negro votes, 
and they all contained some negro members. Two sorts of 
leaders came forward to guide the new governments. If 
they were northern men who had come down to settle in the 
South, they were called " carpetbaggers "; if they were native 
southerners, they were called " scalawags." The reconstruc- 
tion governments were thus thrown into the hands of ignorant 
men and tricky politicians. The effect on the negroes and 
the white people will be considered in a later chapter. One 
by one the states were re-admitted by act of Congress, until 
in 1 87 1 Georgia, the last of the eleven former seceding states, 
was again admitted to the Union in full standing. 

295. Reconstruction of the Southern Whites. — The only 
man brought to trial for treason was Jefferson Davis. After 
he had spent two years as a prisoner in Fort Monroe, the 
federal courts dismissed the case on legal points. Their real 
reason was that it seemed absurd to select one man for pun- 
ishment out of the millions who had helped to make war on 
the Union. Davis was therefore set free. 

Thousands of southerners received pardons from President 
Johnson; and then he put forth a general amnesty procla- 
mation, pardoning all who had not been active in the war. 
In the end the only penalty inflicted by the federal govern- 
ment on the southern leaders was to prohibit them for a time 
from holding office under the United States or under any 
state (Fourteenth Amendment). 

Nevertheless the people of the South suffered intensely. 
Many rich men were reduced to poverty. For example, 
one gentleman of Mississippi, who had formerly owned 200 



372 RECONSTRUCTION 

slaves, became poor and made a point of doing his own wash- 
ing. A splendid example of patience and loyalty to the United 
States was set to the South by General Robert E. Lee, who 
accepted the result and settled down quietly. Most of the 
other Confederate generals returned to their plantations or 
to business. The southern people still had pluck and energy; 
the master minds in the South were still those of the former 
leaders and planters, and they went to work to make the best 
of their unhappy condition. 

296. Reconstruction of the Negroes. — President Lincoln 
had a plan of colonizing all the freedmen outside of the 
country; that would have removed the negro question. But 
who could carry away 4,000,000 human beings? And what 
would large areas of the South do without laborers? Yet 
the negroes were a serious problem. Only a twentieth of 
them could read and write. Except for a few who had been 
free before the war, they had no land, no money, no property. 
They did not know how to manage plantations or to carry on 
business by themselves. They could work for other people, 
but otheru'ise seemed a dead weight on the community. 

A large part of the negroes were still on the plantations 
where they had been slaves, and remained there to work for 
wages. The South still looked on them, however, as an in- 
ferior and dependent race which through lack of experience 
could not be trusted to look out for itself. Therefore, during 
1865 several of the states passed " vagrant laws," which 
obliged negroes to choose an employer and to keep steadily 
at work for him. 

These vagrant laws seemed to the North a proof that the 
whites did not mean well by the freedmen, and that the 
Federal government must protect them. At first the Federal 
soldiers were expected to see that they were well used. The 
next step was to set up a Freedmen's Bureau by act of 
Congress. It picked up wandering negroes, fed the starv- 
ing, started schools, and settled quarrels with the white 
people. 

297. Reconstruction Amendments (1865-1871). — After a 
few years most of the troops were withdrawn and the Freed- 



AMENDMENTS 373 

men's Bureau was given up. That left the negroes under the 
laws and constitutions of the reconstructed states; but the 
Republicans asked what there was to prevent the states from 
changing those constitutions, and virtually restoring slavery, 
as soon as they got back into the Union. 

Therefore, the changes brought about by the war were 
secured by three constitutional amendments {See Appendix) : 

(i) Just at the end of the war, Congress under Lincoln's 
guidance drew up a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion, which provided that slavery and involuntary servitude 
should cease everywhere in the United States. The neces- 
sary three-fourths majority of all the states was secured, and 
in 1865 the amendment became a part of the Constitution. 
That was the end of slavery, for the amendment was a higher 
law, above the action of any state (§ 127). It was this amend- 
ment that abolished slavery in Kentucky and Delaware. 

(2) The negroes were now free; but were they citizens? 
That is, were they members of the states and the Union 
on the same footing as white people? Even in some of the 
northern states, they could not be witnesses in court against 
whites, and their children were not allowed in the public 
schools. To cover that point Congress submitted the Four- 
teenth Amendment (1866), which provided that " all persons 
born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens 
of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." 
The amendment also forbade the payment of any public debts 
incurred in the South for the support of the war. It was rati- 
fied in 1868, but would hardly have gone through, had not 
some of the southern states been compelled to ratify it before 
they could get back into the Union. From that time negroes 
in every state have been entitled to the same rights and the 
same protection as white people. The amendment also made 
the Federal government a kind of guardian of their rights. 

(3) At the beginning of the Civil War free negroes could 
not vote in any state of the Union, except in five New Eng- 
land states and in New York. The abolitionists nevertheless 
argued that negroes had the same natural rights (§ 255) as 
whites, and should be given the suffrage. Lincoln gradually 



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IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT 375 

inclined to this view. Toward the end of the war he asked 
"whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for 
instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have 
fought gallantly in our ranks." This idea was taken up by 
Congress in the reconstruction acts. Then, lest the southern 
states might take the suffrage away again, a Fifteenth Amend- 
ment was submitted and was ratified in 1870, to the effect 
that no person should be deprived of suffrage on account 
of " race, color, or previous condition of servitude." 

298. Impeachment of the President (1868). — All the way 
through the reconstruction the President and Congress were 
at odds. Johnson was rough and ill-mannered and some- 
times sneered at what he termed " a body called, or which 
assumes to be, the Congress of the United States." When 
he could not come to an understanding with the Republicans 
he made friends with the Democrats. Congress on its side 
browbeat him, and passed a Tenure of Ofifice Act to prevent 
him from removing officers (1867). In 1868 the Republi- 
cans were so' furious that they tried to remove him from ofifice 
by impeachment, on the charge that contrary to this law he was 
trying to remove the Secretary of War, Stanton. The real 
offense was that he would not join in the radical spirit of 
Congress. It would have been a dangerous thing for the 
welfare of the country to remove a President simply because 
Congress did not like him; and it was fortunate that the 
votes for conviction were one short of the necessary two thirds. 

In the presidential convention of 1868, General Grant was 
nominated by the Republicans. The Democrats began to 
pull themselves together again, and put up Horatio Seymour 
of New York, a man of high character. Grant was easily 
elected, though the Democrats polled nearly 3,000,000 votes. 
Some of that party wanted to upset reconstruction and the 
constitutional amendments; but most of them took the 
ground that they must accept things as they found them, and 
start anew. 

299. Reconstruction in Business and Transportation. — In 
1865, when the South was almost ruined, the North was more 
prosperous than ever before in its history. During the Civil 



376 



RECONSTRUCTION 



War, manufacturers were busy not only on their usual orders, 
but also in furnishing enormous quantities of supplies for 
the army and the navy. Foreign commerce was lively, not- 
withstanding the captures of vessels by Confederate cruisers 
(§ 288). The great source of wealth was, however, the steady 
growth of farm regions, villages, and cities throughout New 
England and the middle states and the rapid growth of popu- 
lation in the West. This made business of all kinds lively. 
Factories, mines, and banks also increased rapidly. 

To carry all this new business railroads were spreading 
like magic. Short lines were built right and left. Long 
lines were linked together until one could ride in a sleeping 
car with only one change from New York to St. Louis or 
Chiciigo. Great factories for building locomotives sprang up. 
Iron works were busy rolling railroad iron and making ma- 
terials for all kinds of manufactures. 




The first train over the Central Pacific Railroad, 1869. From an old print 



The great railroad event of this period was the beginning 
of the Pacific Railroad. California stood by the Union dur- 
ing the war, but the Pacific coast was a long way ofif and needed 
some connection closer than overland mail coaches and pony 
expresses (§ 262). In 1862 Congress took up the familiar 



TRANSPORTATION AND BUSINESS 377 

idea of a Pacific railroad and made great grants of public land 
to aid in the building of certain specified lines from Omaha, 
Lake Superior, and Kansas City to the Pacific coast. To a few 
roads the government also lent money. With this powerful 
aid the Union Pacific Railroad Company in 1869 completed 
a road from Omaha to Ogden, near Great Salt Lake, where 
it met the Central Pacific Railroad which ran on to San 
Francisco. This was the first transcontinental railroad line 
(map, page 386). 

300. Financial Reconstruction (1868-1875). — Though the 
people were rich, the United States government was poor, 
for at the end of the war it owed about 3000 million dollars. 
On this immense sum it had to pay interest; and it had prom- 
ised to repay the debt eventually in " coin." To make 
good this promise some of the heavy war taxes were kept in 
force. No gold or silver was in circulation, and the green- 
backs and national bank notes were the only currency. People 
who wanted gold had to buy it at a premium, so that some- 
times a thousand dollars in greenbacks might not buy more 
than six hundred dollars in gold coin. 

As people came to have more and more confidence that 
the United States would pay all its debts, the greenbacks went 
up in value and the gold came down. This seemed a great 
hardship to men who had borrowed money in greenbacks when 
they had a low value measured in gold, and were now called 
on to repay in greenbacks representing more gold; in effect, 
they had to pay more wheat or corn or manufactured goods 
than they had received. On the other hand, the holders of 
government bonds had lent money when greenbacks were low, 
and were getting their money back when greenbacks were 
high, so that some of them received nearly twice what they 
had paid. These people were popularly called " bloated 
bondholders." 

Meanwhile the government debt was being paid off and 
much money was made by business men. There was a boom 
in all kinds of business. Thousands of miles of railroad were 
built out into the West, where there was little or no popula- 
tion, because the owners of the road expected to make money 



378 RECONSTRUCTION 

by bringing people out and settling the country. A Home- 
stead Act of 1862 allowed settlers to take up 160 acres of land 
free of payment. The thing was overdone, so that in 1873 
there was a serious commercial panic. Many banks, business 
houses, and railroads went bankrupt, and it was several years 
before business recovered. 

301. Summary. — This chapter describes how the United 
States was reconstructed after the Civil War by acts of Con- 
gress and three constitutional amendments. 

When the Civil War ended it seemed easy to settle the 
difificulties by carrying out the principle that the states had 
not seceded. It was quickly seen, however, that the state 
governments, the white people, and the negroes in the South 
were all in a changed condition. President Andrew Johnson 
undertook to prepare the states to come back directly; but 
Congress stood in his way, and by its two-thirds majority 
made such laws as it liked, overriding the President's vetoes. 

The decision of Congress was that the states must stay out 
of the Union until they came back on such terms as Congress 
should impose. They must admit negroes to their elections 
and governments. This process of reconstructing the states 
lasted from 1865 to 187 1. 

After vainly trying to convict JefTerson Davis of treason, 
Congress gave up the idea of punishing the white people in 
the South except by shutting them out temporarily from 
public offices. 

For the negroes, three constitutional amendments were 
adopted: (i) The Thirteenth Amendment declared them all 
free. (2) The Fourteenth Amendment declared them citi- 
zens under the protection of the federal government. (3) The 
Fifteenth Amendment assured them of the right to vote. 

The Republicans came within one vote of removing Presi- 
dent Johnson. The North came out of the war rich and 
prosperous, and able to pay heavy taxes; but it was disturbed 
by the use of greenbacks, which passed at a discount, as meas- 
ured in gold. Meantime settlement was spreading and new 
railroads were building, especially lines to the Pacific coast 
under government aid. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 379 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Dunning, Reconstruction, 82, 114. — Wart, Epoch Maps, no. j; 
Wall Maps. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 210. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 594-626, 640-644. — Dunning, Re- 
construction, chs. i-viii. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., 407-420. — Haworth, 
Reconstruction and Union, 7-43. — Paxson, New Nation, 26-49. — South 
in Building of Nation, IV. 553-626. — Wilson, Division and Reunion, 

§§ 125-133- 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 466-477. — Harding, 
Select Orations, nos. 29-31. — Hart, Contemporaries, IV. §§ 141-155, 162; 
Source Book, §§127-131. — Hill, Liberty Docs., ch. xxiii. — James, 
Readings, §93. — Johnston, Am. Orations, IV. 129-188. — MacDonald, 
Doc. Source Book, nos. 145-173; Select Statutes, nos. 49-84. 

Side Lights and Stories. Glasgow, Voice of the People. — Hale, Mrs. 
Merriam's Scholars. — Page, Red Rock. — Thanet, Expiation. — Tourgee, 
Fool's Errand. 

Pictxxres. Frank Leslie's Weekly. — Harper's Weekly. — Wilson, Am. 
People, V. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 293) I. What did many people think about the problem of recon- 
struction? 2. What changes had come about in the South during the war? 
3. How were the southern states affected? 4. How were the white 
southerners affected? 5. How were the freedmen affected? 6. Who had 
power to reorganize the Union? 7. What was President Johnson's point 
of view? 

(§ 294) 8. How did Johnson try to reconstruct? 9. What was the 
plan adopted by Congress? 10. How were new governments formed in 
the South? 

(§ 295) II (For an essay). Jefferson Davis in prison. 12. How were 
southern leaders treated? 13. How did they receive reconstruction? 

(§ 296) 14. What was the condition of the negroes? 15. What laws 
were passed regarding them? 16 (For an essay) . Life among the freed- 
men just after the war. 17. What did the Federal government do for 
them? 

(§ 297) 18. Why were constitutional amendments needed? 19. What 
was the Thirteenth Amendment? 20. What was the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment? 21. What was the Fifteenth Amendment? 

(§ 298) 22. Why was an effort made to impeach the President? 23. 
How did it result? 24. What was the result of the election of 1868? 

(§ 299) 25. What was the state of business during the war? 26. How 
did the railroads prosper? 27. How were the Pacific railroads built? 
28 (For an essay). An early rail trip across the continent. 

(§ 300) 29. What was the currency during the war? 30. How did the 
greenbacks affect business? 31. How was the West settled after the war? 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE (1870-1885) 

302. The West in 1870. — Until the Civil War, the West 
stopped near the Mississippi River; but in a few years an- 
other larger West stretched beyond, with a scattered popula- 
tion pushed out in advance of the railroads. In 1870 about 
7,000,000 people, in addition to 250,000 Indians, were living 
in the section between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast, 
including the former slave states of Missouri, Arkansas, Louis- 
iana, and Texas. Except for the mining camps in Nevada, Colo- 
rado, Idaho, and California, the far West was almost entirely 
a farming and cattle-raising region. 

The western plains and valleys of the Rocky Mountains 
long abounded in buffaloes, excellent for food and covered 
with a valuable pelt. The fur traders killed out part of them 
(§ I57)> a^^d the farmers helped the Indians to finish the de- 
struction; so that after 1875 not a tenth of the immense 
herds was left. 

No effort was ever made to raise buffaloes on a large scale, 
but the cattle brought over by the old Spaniards multiplied 
until there were millions on the great plains of Texas and 
farther north. The different owners of cattle ranches had 
each a mark that was branded on the calves, and each tried 
to keep his herds together. Then the cattle were driven north 
to the railroads, by which they were shipped alive to Chicago 
and other places, to be killed and packed. Some live cattle 
were carried as far as the eastern coast cities, and shipped in 
steamers across the sea, especially to England. It was a 
good business, and cattlemen who had little at the start often 
became rich. 

303. The Pacific Slope. — Still farther to the westward 
was another cattle-raising region in California; but so many 

380 



THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



381 




Memorial Arch, Leland Stanford University, California. The architect designed 
the buildings after the style of the old Spanish missions 

settlers poured in that much of the grazing land was turned 
into plowed fields, and California raised an immense wheat 
crop for export. Spanish land grants were bought up by 
Americans and became vast private estates, some of them 
including 20,000 or 30,000 acres. The Californians explored 
their own state and found several superb mountain valleys, 
of which the Yosemite with its waterfalls 2,500 feet high is 
the most magnificent. They also discovered several groves 
of big trees, three or four thousand years old. 

Farther up the coast the principal product at this time was 
the magnificent timber of Oregon and Washington, including 
many trees ten feet in diameter at fifteen feet above the 
ground. Oregon was developing a farming region in the broad 
valleys of the Willamette and the Columbia (§ 262), and small 
settlements were already made at Spokane Falls and Walla 
Walla, and at Seattle and Tacoma on Puget Sound. After a 
long dispute with Great Britain the beautiful group of San 
Juan Islands in the waters separating Vancouver Island from 
the mainland was acknowledged to belong to the United 
States (1872). 

Far to the north another stretch of Pacific coast was added 
in 1867 by annexing Alaska, then called Russian America 



382 THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE 

(§ 233). The Russians made up their minds that it was not 
wortii while to keep the region, and Secretary Seward quickly 
accepted their offer to sell it for 87,200,000. The new pos- 
session included islands stretching almost to the coast of Asia, 
the valley of the great Yukon River, and thousands of islands 
off the coast, as far south as 54° 40' (map, page 8). Nobody 
then realized how rich Alaska was in various sorts of wealth: 
gold, coal, and copper; fur-bearing seals; and salmon and 
other fish. 

304. Interior Territories and States (1861-1876). — After 
the Civil War, settlers poured into the great interior country 
beyond the Missouri River, and there was a brief rush east- 
ward from California across the Sierra Nevada. These settle- 
ments made it necessary to create seven new territories, as 
follows: Colorado, Nevada, and Dakota (1861), Arizona and 
Idaho (1863), Montana (1864), Wyoming (1868). 

Nevada was admitted to the Union as the 36th state in a 
great hurry in order to get its electoral vote for 1864 (map, page 
432). It then contained only 40,000 people, chiefly engaged 
in mining. Nebraska included valuable prairie lands and was 
on the line of the new Pacific railroad. It was duly admitted 
in 1867 as the 37th state with 100,000 people, practically all 
of them farmers. 

One of the scenic wonders of the great interior was made 
known in 1869, when a bold set of government explorers went 
down the Colorado River in a boat, through the Grand Can- 
yon. The next year a private exploring party pushed its way 
into the extreme headwaters of the Yellowstone River, about 
which trappers told wonderful tales; and there they found 
great waterfalls and hot springs and rock terraces and foun- 
tain-like geysers, which since then have been the admiration 
of thousands of visitors. 

Colorado seemed very far away. Most of its settlers 
reached it by a long journey in " prairie schooners "; that is, 
big covered wagons, very much like the old Conestoga wagons 
(§ 176). Some of them were marked " Pikes Peak or Bust." 
The state was admitted to the Union (the 38th state) in 1876. 
The emigrants then hardly realized the resources of the state 




.**»' ^3^™^ _ ^ 





f 



Old Faithful Geyser, in Yellowstone National Park, regularly spouts 

up a column of hot water every sixty-five minutes, to a 

height of one hundred twenty-five feet 



384 THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE 

in cattle, grain, and fruit, or the magnificence of the natural 
scenery. By 1880 the state had a population of 194,000. 

Midway in the interior were the flourishing settlements of 
the Mormons. By 1870 there were 87,000 people in their 
territory of Utah (§262), including some " Gentiles," as the 
non-Mormons were called. The new Pacific railroad in 1869 
brought in more outsiders and travelers; and the attention 
of the country was thus called to the fact that the Mormon 
Church allowed plural marriages. Brigham Young, the 
Prophet of the church, had about twenty wives. Congress 
made various elTorts to stop this practice of pohgamy, and 
some of the leaders were sent to prison for it. The contro- 
versy for many years prevented Utah from being admitted 
as a state. 

305. Far Western Indians. — As the western settlers ar- 
rived, they found themselves in close contact with strong 
and warlike tribes of Indians, especially the Sioux, the Modocs, 
and the Apaches. In 1862 and in 1866 there was war with the 
fierce Sioux; and after the discovery of gold in the Black 
Hills, these Indians fought again in 1876, under the leader- 
ship of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other chiefs, tr>'ing to 
keep the miners out of their country'. During the war the 
Sioux surrounded and massacred to the last man two hundred 
and sixty cavalrymen under the command of General Custer. 
In 1872 about eighty Modoc warriors under the command 
of Chief Jack, took refuge in the lava beds of northern Cali- 
fornia and for months kept up a running fight with the soldiers. 
The Apaches, a brave and ferocious tribe of horse-riding In- 
dians, infested the routes from Texas through New Mexico and 
Arizona, and were not afraid to attack detachments of the 
regular army. 

President Grant began what was called the " peace policy " 
of settling all the Indians on reservations (map, page 432), 
and planting schools and missions among them. The spread 
of railroads and settlements aided in that work, and the Indian 
wars practically came to an end in 1886. Since then the gov- 
ernment has kept up schools on the reservations, and has sent 
chosen Indian boys and girls to some eastern schools. 



INDIANS AND PUBLIC LANDS 385 

The government has used all its influence to induce the 
Indians to break up their tribes and take up separate farms 
" in severalty," as it is called, one for each family, and thus 
to live like white men. 

306. Public Lands. — As fast as the Indians were pacified 
and made treaties giving up their lands, white settlers came 
in. In addition to the Preemption Act of 1841 (§218) Con- 
gress passed a Homestead Act in 1862 (§ 300), by which any 
head of a family, even though a recent immigrant, could take 
up 160 acres of land, live on it five years, and then get the title 
to it by paying fees of about $25. In ten years 28 million 
acres were thus occupied. The settler could also take up 
another 160 acres by preemption, paying $200 for it; and 
(after 1873) he could take up 160 acres more, keep trees grow- 
ing on forty of the acres for eight years, and then get a title 
free. 

Much of the good land lay far from routes of travel, and 
therefore the government from time to time added to the 
prodigious land grants made in 1862 (§ 299) for constructing 
a group of railroads extending from the Missouri River to the 
Pacific Ocean. Such roads received the alternate sections 
or checkers of land, each a mile square, within a belt forty 
miles broad along the length of the road. Some roads had 
an eighty-mile belt. The other squares were reserved for 
private settlement under the Homestead Act, or could be 
bought by preemption at double price ($2.50) an acre. 

Unfortunately Congress assumed that most of the govern- 
ment land was " arable," that is, good for farming; and it 
did not reserve lands which had a special value for their min- 
erals or water privileges, as might easily have been done. 
After many years Congress did make an extra charge for 
timber and stone lands, but little pains was taken to collect 
the extra price. It was years before Congress began to charge 
a higher price for coal lands, which might be worth a hundred 
or even a thousand dollars an acre. Nor was any effort made 
to keep control of river waters which were of special value to 
cattle owners, or which could be carried aside by canals and 
used to irrigate land that would otherwise be worthless. Any 

hart's SCH. hist. — 22 



386 



THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



man owning a claim fronting on the river could use the 
water, or sell it to his neighbors, as he liked. 




Transcontinental railroad lines 



307. Western Transportation. — In 1869 there was only 
one line of railroad from the East to the Pacific coast. Fifteen 
years later there were five, besides many cross lines and con- 
necting lines. The most important through routes were: 
(i) the Northern Pacific from Lake Superior to Tacoma and 
Seattle on Puget Sound; (2) the Union Pacific and Oregon 
Short Line from Omaha to Portland on the Columbia; (3) the 
Union Pacific and Central Pacific route from Omaha via 
Salt Lake City to San Francisco; (4) the Atchison, Topeka, 
and Santa Fe from Kansas City to Los Angeles; (5) the 
Southern Pacific from New Orleans to Los Angeles. 

Among the men who built and managed these lines were 
Stanford and Huntington of the California roads, Villard of 
the Northern Pacific, and Palmer of the Atchison. 



TRANSPORTATION AND MINING 387 

All the roads mentioned had land grants (§ 306), and Con- 
gress voted land also to the Texas and Pacific west from Lou- 
isiana, to the California and Oregon, and to some other shorter 
lines. A few received from the government an advance of 
money which finally amounted to over 60 million dollars, and 
had to be repaid. 

308. Mining in the West, — Just before the Civil War 
some gold placers (§ 222) were found on the eastern slope of 
the Rocky Mountains near Denver, and the gold was traced 
back to quartz " lodes " or ledges of rock. About 1859 silver 
was found east of the Sierra Nevada; and at Virginia City 
was opened the Consolidated Virginia silver mine, one of the 
most valuable that the world has ever seen. First and last, 
silver to the amount of 300 million dollars was taken out 
of it. 

Whenever a new " strike " was made, hundreds of miners 
rushed to it, but after the surface was skimmed little more 
could be done without expensive machinery and costly work- 
ings. In 1876 a great strike of silver was made at Leadville, 
which is situated very nearly at the source of the Arkansas 
River. Subsequently copper was found at Clifton and other 
places in Arizona, and at Butte and the surrounding country 
in Montana. 

For a long time nobody paid much attention to the western 
coal, but deposits were at last found in Colorado, Wyoming, 
Washington, Utah, Montana, and New Mexico. This made 
it possible to work profitably gold, silver, and copper ores 
which required intense heat. These processes led to the 
building of enormous smelters near Denver, Butte, and else- 
where. 

Many of the mining towns decayed, but scores of them re- 
mained and made a market for neighboring farmers; that 
encouraged " ranches," as farms are often called in the far 
West. The business of the mines attracted railroads and 
banks and corporations of all kinds. Some of the pioneers 
saw rich cities grow up in what were once their farms, with 
great buildings and thousands of busy men and women. 
Eastern investors who realized the richness of the West sent 



388 



THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE 




money there and lent it to enable the West to build more 
railroads and cities and factories, and to open more mines and 
ranches. 

309. Foreign Immigration, — Among the farmers, ranch- 
men, and miners in the far West in 1870 were about a million 

foreign immigrants. People 
poured into the United 
States from Europe so 
fast after the Civil War 
that in the year 1870 five 
and a half millions of the 
white population consisted 
of foreign - born persons 
and their children. Of 
these nearly a third were 
of Irish birth or race; 
about another third were 
German - speaking; 
800,000, or about 
a seventh of the 
whole, were Eng- 
lish, Scotch, and 
Welsh; half a 
million came from 
Canada; and a quarter of a million were Scandinavians. In 
California, Oregon, and Nevada lived about 55,000 Chinese, 
a few of whom were brought East and became laundrymen, 
cooks, and factory hands. 

After 1870 most of the foreign immigrants crossed on 
steamers of regular lines such as the Cunard, Guion, Inman, 
and White Star lines from Liverpool, the Anchor line from 
Glasgow, the French line from Havre, the Hamburg American 
and North German Lloyd lines from Germany. These ships, 
though still small and uncomfortable even for cabin passen- 
gers, between i860 and 1880 carried most of the four million 
immigrant passengers. 

Nearly half of the immigrants settled along or near the sea- 
coast where they landed, and they formed Irish and German 




Memorial to John Boyle O'Reilly, the noted poet and 
journalist, who came as an immigrant to Boston in 
1869 



IMMIGRATION 



389 



sections in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. There 
were similar colonies of foreigners in Milwaukee, Cleveland, 
Chicago, Cincinnati, and other large cities; for example, 
a Bohemian quarter in Cleveland, and a Scandinavian ele- 
ment in Minneapolis. About a third of the immigrants were 
distributed in the old 
northwestern states, and 
in Missouri and Texas. 

Only about a twenty- 
fifth of the immigrants 
were found in the for- 
mer seceding states. 
There the rough labor, 
such as railroad build- 
ing and tilling the large 
plantations, was almost 
all done by negroes; and 
there was not much 
chance for a foreign 
man or woman looking 
for work. The cities 
were fewer than in the 
North, and there was 
little government land 
to be had. Hence, out- 
side of the large cities 
there were few foreign 
immigrants in the 
South. 

310. Home Emi- 
gration. — Just as in 
colonial times, the 
settlers at the frontiers were in large part immigrants from 
communities farther east. Even in the East a fifth of those 
born in any particular state sooner or later moved to another 
state. In Nebraska, in 1880, four fifths of all the people living 
there were not born in that state. Some far western settlers 
moved a score of times ; and in cities like Omaha and Denver 




The Statue of Liberty greets immigrants entering 
New York Harbor. This giant bronze figure was 
presented to America by France in 1886 



390 



THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



might be found residents coming from tiiirty different 
states. 

These different kinds of people all had something to bring 
with them: New Englanders carried along their school 
system; southerners brought their method of county govern- 
ment; New Yorkers were used to business on a large scale; 
French and Swiss immigrants were skilled in vine growing; 
Irishmen knew how to raise cattle; Germans were fond of 
music; the Swiss were builders of good roads. Most of the 
immigrants found work or made work, and the great West 
could not have been built up so quickly without the aid of 
the foreign-born laborers and their children. 




Immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia in home costumes 



Among these ipimigrants the Irish, English, Scotch, Welsh, 
and part of the Canadian immigrants spoke English before 
they arrived; and most of the other races learned it after a 
few years. The children usually learned both the home speech 
and English. Among the grandchildren English would 
probal^ly be the only language spoken in the family. 

311. Checks on Immigration. — So welcome were the immi- 
grants that for half a century all were received, of whatever 
color, race, language, or condition : the strong and the weak, 
the well and the sick, good people and criminals, members 
of many races and of nearly all churches. They included 



CHECKS ON IMMIGRATION 391 

Catholics, whether Irish, German, French, Austrian, or 
Hungarian, and members of almost every Protestant denomi- 
nation in the world. Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, 
Jews and Protestants, Hindu Brahmanists, Chinese followers 
of Confucius, and Japanese Buddhists, — all were free to build 
churches and temples, and to practice their own form of 
religion. 

Since carrying passengers from foreign countries is con- 
sidered to be a part of commerce with foreign nations, only 
the federal government could prevent immigrants from coming 
in, or could keep out any classes or races. The welcome to 
immigrants was so broad that for many years the only limi- 
tation laid down by Congress was that the officers of all 
arriving ships must make a written report of the number of 
immigrant passengers on board. Laws were then passed to 
secure to these immigrants proper quarters, food, health, and 
decency while on the voyage. 

In 1875 Congress began to shut out convicts and certain 
other classes of immigrants; and the list was enlarged till it 
now includes persons who have been convicted of crime, luna- 
tics, people who cannot support themselves, contract laborers 
who come on a promise by some one in America to give them 
employment, polygamists, people with contagious diseases, 
openly immoral persons, and anarchists. 

312. Chinese Immigration. — Although the Chinese were 
much in demand as laborers, it was objected that they lived 
by themselves; few of them learned English; they did not 
bring their families; all intended to go back to China in course 
of time; and they were accused of working for lower wages 
than white men. Under the laws of the United States no 
person born in China could become a citizen of the United 
States, but a child born over here of Chinese parents was a 
citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment (§ 297). 

In the three Pacific states and Nevada it was thought unde- 
sirable to admit an indefinite number of such foreigners, who 
could not be expected to learn our language, laws, or govern- 
ment. The Chinese government cared little about their 
laborers in America, and after long discussions it was agreed 



392 THE WEST AND THE PACIFIC SLOPE 

(i88i) that Congress might forbid the coming of all except the 
four special classes of travelers, merchants, students, and diplo- 
mats. Some Chinese laborers managed to slip in, in spite of 
the law, but the number in the country in 1910 was reduced 
to about 72,000. 

313. Summary. — This chapter tells of the West and far 
West, during and after the Civil War, and of the means of 
transportation and of the results of immigration. 

The region west of the Mississippi was rich in land suit- 
able for farms and for cattle; and the mountains abounded 
in minerals. California came to be a wheat-growing state, 
and along the Pacific coast valuable timber was cut. By the 
annexation of Alaska the United States secured a region which 
proved later to have great resources. The interior country 
developed very rapidly into territories and then into states: 
Nevada, Nebraska, and Colorado were admitted to the Union, 
while Utah was delayed. 

The last of the Indian wars came between 1870 and 1886; 
and though several commands of United States troops were 
beaten, in the end all the Indians had to yield and go upon 
reservations, where they could have schools and learn to farm. 

The ending of Indian wars opened the way for settlers who 
were attracted by the Land Acts of 1862 and 1873. The 
policy of the government was to give the land away, so far as 
could be, to actual settlers. Many of the far western com- 
munities were mining camps, which grew up around discov- 
eries of gold, silver, copper, and coal. 

The rapid settlement of the West was aided by immigration 
from foreign countries. Another western element was the 
native-born people who moved out of the older states. By 
immigration laws, Congress began to shut out convicts, con- 
tract laborers, and others, and also Chinese laborers. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Epoch Maps, no. 14; Wall Maps. — Shepherd, Hist. 
Atlas, 203, 210. — Sparks, Nat. Development, 242, 266. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. Stales, 676-691, 774. — Paxson, New Nation, 
20-25, 142-151. 154-157- — Sparks, Nat. Development, chs. xiv-xvi. 
— Wilson, Division and Reunion, §§ 145-147. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 393 

Sources. Hart, Contemporaries, IV. ^^ i6T), 204. — James, Readings, 
§96. 

Side Lights and Stories. Adams, Log of a Cowboy. — Altsheler, Last 
of the Chiefs (Indians, Custer). — Bindloss, Cattle- Baron's Daughter. — 
Clemens (Mark Twain), Roughing It. — Custer, Boy General. — Forsyth, 
Story of the Soldier. — Garland, Little Norsk (Farms). — -Grinnell, Story 
of the Indian. — Hough, Story of the Cowboy. — King, Campaigning with 
Crook; Colonel's Daughter (Army); Tonio. — Miles, Personal Recollec- 
tions. — Otis, Seth of Colorado. — Shinn, Story of the Mine. — Stoddard, 
Little Smoke (Indians). — Warman, Story of the Railroad. — Wister, The 
Virginian. 

Pictures. Andrews, Last Quarter Century. — Dunbar, Hist, of Travel 
in Am. — Frank Leslie's Weekly. — Harper's Weekly. — Mentor, serial nos. 
7, 60, 83, 85, 92. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 302) I. How did the West develop? 2 (For an essay). Buffalo 
hunting. 3. How was the cattle industry carried on? 

(§ 303) 4- How did California develop? 5. How did Oregon and 
Washington develop? 6. How was Alaska annexed? 

(§ 304) 7- What new territories were created after i860? 8. How and 
when was Nevada admitted to the Union? 9. Colorado? lo (For an 
essay). Exploration of the Colorado River or of the Yellowstone region. 
II. How did the territory of Utah develop? 

(§ 305) 12. What caused the Indian wars? 13 (For an essay). Cus- 
ter's last fight; or the Modoc War. 14. What was done to civilize the 
Indians? 

(§ 306) 15. How could public lands be taken up? 16. What were the 
first railroad land grants? 17. What were the defects in the land policy? 

(§ 307) 18. What were the principal Pacific railroads? 19. What aid 
did the government give the railroads? 

(§308) 20. What new gold and silver mines were opened? 21 (For an 
essay). Visit to a gold mine or a silver mine or a copper mine. 22. How 
were mines an advantage to the country? 

(§ 309) 23. From what foreign countries did immigrants come? 24. 
How were the immigrants transported? 25 (For an essay). An immi- 
grant's voyage across the Atlantic. 26. How were immigrants distributed 
throughout the country? 2^. Why did few immigrants settle in the South? 

(§ 310) 28. How was the West settled? 29. What ideas did immi- 
grants bring into the West? 30 (For an essay). An immigrant family 
settling in the West. 31. What languages did the immigrants speak? 

(§ 311) 32. What were the religions of the immigrants? 33. What 
were the early restrictions on the immigrants? 34. What were the later 
restrictions? 35 (For an essay). Some queer immigrants. 

(§ 312) 36. What were the objections to Chinese immigration? 37, 
What restrictions were placed on the Chinese? 



CHAPTER XXIX 
POLITICS AND PARTIES (18691885) 

314. President Grant (1869-1877). — When Ulysses S. 
Grant of Illinois became President in 1869, he was popular in 
the North because of his success as a general, and because of 
his simple, unassuming life; while his generous treatment of 
the officers and men of Lee's army at their surrender (§ 290) 
had gained him some friends in the South. He had never 
been in politics and felt that he was elected by the people and 
was not obliged to take orders from the leaders of the Repub- 
lican party. 

Grant was a military man who looked upon himself much 
as Andrew Jackson had done (§ 208), as a kind of commander 
in chief of the civil government. Hence he expected the 
members of his Cabinet to accept his directions, and he stood 
by certain personal friends even after they were generally 
supposed to be dishonest. 

The civil service of the government was in bad shape; few 
men could get into the minor positions except by the favor, 
or as it is usually called " influence," of some Senator or 
member of the House. President Grant induced Congress 
to pass an act by which at least some of the clerks in Wash- 
ington could be selected without political influence. The 
Congressmen much disliked this interference with their power 
to recommend persons for office, and they soon cut off the 
necessary funds, so that the whole efTort was a failure. Later 
on, Grant quarreled with Senator Sumner and other powerful 
Republicans, and they interfered with some of his favorite 
plans. 

He used his veto power right and left, vetoing about as 
many bills as all previous Presidents together. He was an 
honest, patriotic President, but unfortunately his adminis- 

394 



PRESIDENT GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION 



395 



tration came in a time of great wastefulness and dishonesty 
in both state and national governments. 

315. Dark Side of Government (1869-1877). — War time 
with its big government contracts and rapid ways of making 
and losing money had a bad effect on the methods of public 
and private business. Informers lay in wait in the federal 
customhouses to pounce on some failure to carry out the law. 
A Whisky Ring in 1875 defrauded the government out of large 
sums. Later, Secretary Belknap, one of the Cabinet, was 
caught selling privileges granted by his department, and had 
to resign in disgrace. 

It was even worse in some of the cities — especially in New 
York, where in 1869 a politician named Tweed got control of the 
county government which was connected with that of the city. 
With the aid of city officials, and by the use of fraud and bogus 
contracts, he and his friends succeeded in stealing nearly a hun- 
dred million dollars 
in three years. 

Some of* the 
newspapers never 
ceased to protest. 
Tweed did not 
mind that, because 
so many of his fol- 
lowers could not 
read. Then an art- 
ist named Thomas 
Nast began, by the 
art of political car- 
toons, to attack 
Tweed and his cro- 
nies in Harper's Weekly. A Democratic leader, Samuel J. Tilden, 
exposed this ring of robbers, and Tweed was sent to prison. 

316. Breakdown of Reconstruction (1869-1874). — Presi- 
dent Grant had large powers over the reconstructed states, 
which were passing through the bitter experience of the car- 
petbag governments (§§ 294, 328). Several of them suffered 
from plunderers as bold and corrupt as the Tweed Ring. 




'Twas him." A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, show- 
ing Tweed (the largest figure) and other members of the 
Tweed Ring trying to clear themselves of blame 



396 POLITICS AND PARTIES 

Taxes were increased, and money was borrowed which was 
then wasted or stolen. Within a few months after Virginia 
was restored to the Union, the "Conservatives" — that is, 
the white voters acting in the Democratic party — recovered 
the control of the state government; and in most of the other 
southern states the same thing soon happened. 

To break the hold of the negro Republican vote, several 
secret societies were formed by the southern whites, of which 
the most famous was the Ku-Klux Klan. At first it con- 
sisted of young men who thought it a kind of joke to ride 
about the country rigged out as headless ghosts, and thus to 
frighten the negroes. This practice quickly grew into a sys- 
tem by which many negroes and some whites were whipped, 
driven out of the country, or shot. As soon as the negroes 
took the hint and stopped voting, most of the so-called " Lower 
South " — the belt of states from South Carolina to Texas — 
elected Democratic legislators and Congressmen. 

Congress tried to stop this movement and to put down these 
societies by passing severe measures commonly called " Force 
Bills," intended to protect the negro voters by the use of fed- 
eral troops. On the other hand, Congress took off the " disa- 
bilities " which had prevented the old leaders from holding 
office (§ 294). The result was that in the election of 1874, 
often called the " tidal wave," several former Confederate 
generals were chosen to Congress. Nine years after the Civ'il 
War, therefore, the southern states had managed to set aside 
the greater part of the reconstruction measures. 

317. Party Politics (1869-1S76). — In the presidential elec- 
tion of 1872 Grant was opposed by Sumner, Schurz, and other 
Liberal Republicans, who joined with the Democrats to 
support Horace Greeley (§ 267). Grant was easily reelected 
though the Democrats carried six southern states. 

After that year the southern Democrats gradually united 
in what was called the " solid South," which at every election 
supported the Democratic candidate, whoever he might be. 
The great cities became very important in elections, for the 
party that could carry New York, or Chicago, or San Francisco 
expected also to carry the state in which the city was situated. 



RECONSTRUCTION AND PARTIES 397 

During this whole period the Republican party appealed 
for votes on the ground that it had successfully carried on the 
Civil War and reconstruction. One of the campaign cries 
of the Republicans was, " We vote as we shot." The other 
side accused them of " waving the bloody shirt"; that is, of 
always arousing northern feeling against the South. 

The Thirteenth (emancipation) Amendment was little 
questioned, for nobody any longer wanted slavery; but the 
Democrats disliked the Fourteenth (citizenship) Amendment 
and the Fifteenth (negro suffrage) Amendment (§ 297). 
Since most of the New England and the northwestern states 
were safely Republican in politics, the balance of power came to 
lie in three " doubtful states," New York, Ohio, and Indiana. 
Hence, for many years the candidates on both sides were usu- 
ally chosen from one or another of those states. 

Besides the two main parties, at every presidential election 
would appear one or more " third parties." The western 
farmers in 1867 formed a national order which they called 
the " Patrons of Husbandry"; each local society connected 
with it was called a " Grange." The Grangers nominated 
no tickets, but other farmers' organizations did so. In some 
states they succeeded in getting control of the legislature, 
which began to regulate the railroads. In 1872 for the first 
time the National Prohibition party put up a candidate, and 
the Labor Reform party polled 29,000 votes. In 1876 the 
Greenback party, which wanted to pay the rest of the public 
debt in paper notes, polled 82,000 votes. 

318. Cuba and the West Indies (1868-1870). — It will be 
remembered that President Pierce in the fifties wanted to 
annex Cuba, which was a colony of Spain (§ 253). It was not 
done, and the United States kept on good terms with Spain 
and had a profitable trade with the island. In 1868, part of 
the people of Cuba revolted and formed what they called 
a republican government, made up partly of whites and 
partly of negroes. For ten years a civil war raged in the 
island with great destruction of life and property. 

The United States government took no part, either for or 
against the insurgents, and when difficulties arose President 



398 



POLITICS AND PARTIES 



Grant prevented war by the United States to aid the insur- 
gents. The Cubans finally gave up the struggle in 1878, on 
condition that they should have a reformed government, and 
that the slaves should be emancipated. 
P^AN APPEAL 4 '^^"'^ ^ ^^^^ years earlier Brazil had also eman- 
cipated her slaves, so that slavery now 
ceased in every part of America. 

Though President Grant did not want 
Cuba, he was anxious to annex the republic 
of Santo Domingo, and he made a treaty 
to that effect with the negro government 
of the country (1869). To Grant's great 
chagrin, the people of the United States 
were not interested and the Senate re- 
fused to ratify it; and from that time to 
the Spanish War of 1898 no territory was 
annexed by the United States in the West 
Indies. 

319. The Disputed Election of 1876. 
— The Democrats looked forward with 
hope to the election of 1876, and nomi- 
nated a strong candidate in Samuel J. 
Tilden of New York, a noted reformer 
(§315)- The friends of President Grant 
tried to renominate him for a third term, 
but the Republican convention passed him 
by, and also declined to nominate James G. 
Blaine, who had been Speaker of the 
House. Governor Hayes of Ohio was 
selected as a compromise candidate. 

The main discussion in the campaign 
was whether free government would perish 
and all the results of the Civil War be lost 
in case a Democrat were elected President. 
185 electoral votes were needed to elect; 
and when the votes came to be counted, Tilden proved to 
have 184 sure votes. He had carried the solid South (except 
three states) and Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and New 




ISTT 



Growth of the flag. Notice 
that after 1795 there were 
fifteen stripes and stars; 
then, since 1818, thirteen 
stripes, and a star for 
each state 



ELECTION OF 1 876 399 

York. Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana were claimed 
by the Republicans, because they were sure that great num- 
bers of negro voters had been shut out; and by the Demo- 
crats because they believed that the Republicans had falsely 
counted the votes that were cast. There was good ground for 
both of these charges. The result was that the two parties in 
those states filed conflicting returns with the government at 
Washington. 

Since the laws of the United States did not clearly state 
who should decide between two sets of electoral returns, a 
special Electoral Commission was created by an act of Con- 
gress (1877), with power to break the deadlock. It consisted 
of eight Republican members and seven Democrats; and by 
a vote of 8 to 7 it decided every question in favor of the Re- 
publicans. Hayes was therefore declared elected by 185 to 
184, a majority of one electoral vote. 

President Hayes was a high-minded and straightforward 
man, but half the voters in the United States thought that 
he had not been fairly elected, and he was not able to carry 
out any strong policy. The Democrats had a majority in the 
House during the whole four years of his administration, and 
in the Senate for two years. Hayes formed a good Cabinet 
in which Carl Schurz (§252) was a member. The principal 
thing that Hayes did was to call the troops back out of the 
South, so that the federal government could no longer under- 
take to protect the negro by armed force. 

320. Greenbacks (1865-1879). — The old issues of the 
Civil War were wearing out; the things that really interested 
the voters were such matters as the tariff, the regulation of 
railroads, and particularly the currency, that is, the money 
which circulated among the people. For fourteen years after 
the Civil War people continued to use and handle paper 
money; even the small change as low as three cents, for a 
long time, was made up of paper " fractional currency," often 
called " shinplasters." It was, however, very inconvenient 
to do business with foreign countries, because they would 
not take our paper money and insisted on gold and silver; and 
these metals stood at a premium. As late as 1876 it took 



400 POLITICS AND PARTIES 

about eleven dollars in greenbacks to buy a ten-dollar gold 
piece. 

The western and southern farmers thought that greenbacks 
were good enough for anybody. There was a widespread 
belief in " inflation "; that is, in increasing the amount of the 
currency by issuing paper money. People forgot the expe- 
rience of the Civil War, which was that the more paper money 
is put out, the less a paper dollar will buy. A dollar was 
understood to mean a certain weight of gold or silver in a coin; 
and the paper notes were promises to pay specie dollars. 

Congress in 1875 finally resolved to make that understand- 
ing good by "resuming specie payment"; that is, by paying 
gold or siher dollars to any one who cared to present a paper 
dollar at the treasury. Of course, if there was only a little 
gold on hand, there would be a rush to get it. Therefore, 
John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, got together the 
great sum of $140,000,000 in gold; and since 1879 anybody 
may at any time present greenbacks to the government and 
get gold for them at their face value. 

321. Gold and Silver Money. — Until nearly 1879 ordinary 
people bothered little about gold and silver coin, because 
there was none in circulation; that is, passing from hand to 
hand. In 1878 a long and bitter conflict arose over " the 
free coinage of silver." The cause of the trouble is hard to 
make clear in a few words, but was about as follows: 

Up to the Civil War the country had been used to what is 
called " bimetallism"; that is, both gold and silver were cir- 
culated and were used as a standard for paper notes. When 
people agreed to pay a " dollar " they meant either a coin that 
contained 371.25 grains of silver, or one that contained 23.2 
grains of gold. The silver dollar thus had about sixteen times 
the weight of the gold dollar. Congress established this par- 
ticular ratio because the market value of gold was about six- 
teen times that of silver; this was due in part to the fact that 
it usually cost the miners sixteen times as much to mine and 
sell a pound of gold as a pound of silver. A pound of gold 
was, therefore, worth sixteen times as many dollars as a pound 
of silver. This is the so-called " i6-to-i " ratio. 



GOLD AND SILVER MONEY 



401 



For many years anybody who had gold bulUon or silver 
bullion could take it to the mint and the government would 
coin it for him into dollars. For instance (after 1834), if he 
had 2320 grains of gold he would get $100 in gold coin; if he 
offered 37,125 grains of silver he would get $100 in silver. 
This was called " free coinage." Silversmiths, however, w^ould 
pay more than $100 for 37,125 grains of silver bullion; there- 
fore, very little silver was brought to the mint, and in 1873 
Congress stopped making silver dollars ; that is, it would not 
take any more silver 
bullion and return 
dollars. 

Just then, rich silver 
mines were discovered 
in Montana, Idaho, 
Arizona, Colorado, and 
elsewhere (§ 308). In 
1878 the owners of 
those mines demanded 
that Congress should 
give them back their 
former right of free 
coinage; that is, the 
right to turn their bul- 
lion into the mint and 
receive its weight in 
silver dollars. Silver, 
however, was now so 
plentiful that any one who had gold to the weight of one hun- 
dred dollars could buy with it a weight of silver which if coined 
would make about one hundred and ten dollars; that is, in- 
stead of 16 to I, the market ratio between gold and silver had 
fallen to 18 to i. Some years later it fell to about 32 to i. 

It is not essential to remember exactly what is meant by 
"ratios" and "bimetallism" and "16 to i." The main 
point is that the silver miners could get much more in gold 
or goods for their silver if the government would take it and 
give them the same weight of silver dollars for it. They 

hart's sch. hist. — 23 




Storing sacks of money in a United States mint 



402 POLITICS AND PARTIES 

thought they had as good a right to that privilege as the gold 
miners had to get gold dollars. The " goldbugs," as the 
friends of gold coinage were called, pointed out that in most 
European countries gold was the only standard. They in- 
sisted that all the holders of government bonds and paper 
money ought to be paid in gold and not in the cheaper metal, 
silver. They declared that bimetallism was absurd because 
the cost of getting the two metals was so changed that the 
ratio between them altered almost from month to month. 

322. The Silver Question in Politics. (1878-1900). — It 
happened that the goldbugs were strong in the eastern states 
and the silverites out west, where the silver was mined. The 
western and southern farmers, and some eastern farmers also, 
thought that the rich people of the East were making more 
profit than they were entitled to and that free silver on a 
i6-to-i basis would result in transferring part of that profit 
to them. The free-silver men were only partly successful. 
They secured from Congress the Bland Act (1878), named for 
a Missouri member of Congress who pushed it. The silver 
owners did not get free coinage, but the government under- 
took to buy a large amount of silver every year and to coin 
it into silver dollars. This process did not raise the market 
price of silver, which kept falling year after year. It took 
about an ounce of silver to make a silver dollar; but anybody 
who had sixty cents in gold could go out and buy an ounce 
of silver. 

This did not please the silver miners or the people in the 
states that produced silver, and in 1890 they were strong 
enough in Congress to pass the Sherman Silver Act, by which 
the treasury was to buy still more silver. In 1895 the act 
was repealed. In the election of 1896 the friends of free silver 
were defeated; and in 1900, after twenty-two years' struggle. 
Congress made gold the standard metal so that holders of all 
the bonds and notes of the government now have a right to 
demand gold in payment. 

323. President Arthur and the Civil Service (1880-1888). — 
In 1880 the Democrats nominated for President, General 
Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania, one of the bravest 



THE CIVIL SERVICE 403 

officers of the Civil War. The Republicans again refused 
to nominate Grant for a third term; Mr. Blaine was also 
passed by (§319), and the convention settled on General 
James A. Garfield of Ohio. The Greenbackers again put up 
a candidate and got 300,000 votes. New York was carried 
for the Republicans by a narrow majority and that gave Gar- 
field enough electoral votes to elect him. 

He had been in office but four months when he was shot by 
a disappointed office seeker, and Chester A. Arthur of New 
York, the Vice President, came into office. The attention of 
the country was called to the bad features of the spoils system 
(§210). Everybody knew that the government employees 
were holding their offices by doing party work and subscribing 
to the party funds. A civil service reform act was therefore 
favored by men of both parties, and the Pendleton Act for that 
end was readily signed by President Arthur (1883). 

This act provided that: (i) The President might set off 
part of the employees into "the classified service"; and no- 
body could enter that service except by standing high in 
a competitive examination. (2) No government employee 
could be removed for refusing to do party work. (3) A Civil 
Service Commission was to carry out this plan. President 
Arthur applied the scheme to a few thousand employees, 
and every President since has increased the list. At present 
it includes nearly all the men and women who draw a regular 
salary from the United States government. 

Several states and many cities have adopted the system. 
It breaks up the practice of turning out faithful employees 
simply in order to fill the places with political friends, and 
the governments that adopt it gain the benefit of long and 
skilled service by public employees. 

324. Presidential Election of 1884. — In the elections of 
1882 several strong Republican states elected Democratic 
governors. In New York, Grover Cleveland, previously 
mayor of Buffalo, swept the state and proved to be a remark- 
ably strong governor. Hence in 1884 the Democratic conven- 
tion put up Cleveland for the presidency. The Republicans 
after a long struggle nominated James G. Blaine (§319). He 



404 POLITICS AND PARTIES 

was an able and popular man, who for years was a member 
of Congress from Maine and was chosen Speaker of the House. 
He belonged to what was called the " stalwart " wing of the 
Republican party — the wing that was still talking about 
" reconstruction," the " colored vote," and the " rebels." 
Though a remarkably adroit politician, Blaine made many 
enemies by sharp personal attacks on other public men. 

The Democrats declared that the government needed to be 
reformed, and Blaine was charged by some Republicans with 
using his office to enrich himself. The " Mugwumps," a 
group of Republicans chiefly from Massachusetts and New 
York, refused to support Blaine and voted for Cleveland. 
In New York the election was again close (§ 323), so that the 
Democratic plurality was only iioo in a total vote of about 
1,200,000. However, that carried 36 electoral votes, which 
with those of Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and the solid 
South elected Grover Cleveland President. He was duly in- 
augurated in March, 1885. 

325. Summary. — This chapter narrates the political 
events, elections, and controversies during the four Republican 
administrations from 1869 to 1885. The most striking events 
in the period are the struggle between the Republican and 
Democratic parties every four years to get possession of the 
national government. 

President Grant was an upright and vigorous man who tried 
to improve the government but could not seem to cut loose 
from bad friends. It was a time of many frauds in govern- 
ment, such as the Whisky Ring and the Tweed Ring in the 
city of New York. 

Reconstruction broke down. The southern whites, when 
left to themselves, took back their old leaders and elected 
Democrats. The negro vote was much lessened by the action 
of secret societies, especially the Ku-Klux Klan, and no act 
of Congress could stop the movement. 

Grant was reelected in 1872; but the Civil War spirit was 
dying out and the Democrats gained ground. The farmers' 
organizations and the Greenbackers were organizing third 
parties. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 405 

In 1876 the Democrats almost elected Samuel J. Tilden, 
but by the decision of an Electoral Commission (1877) Hayes 
of Ohio was seated as President. He recalled the troops from 
the South. 

The greenback controversy was settled by the resumption 
of specie payments in 1879. Just at this time a new trouble 
arose because the government no longer allowed free coinage 
of silver at 16 to i. It was settled for a time by the Bland 
Act of 1878. 

General Garfield of Ohio was elected President by the 
Republicans in 1880, but was assassinated early in his term. 
Under his successor, Chester A. Arthur, a bill was passed for 
reforming the civil service. In the election of 1884 a Demo- 
crat, Grover Cleveland, was chosen President, after 24 years 
of Republican administration, 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Dunning, Reconstruction. — Sparks, Nat. Development. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 626-719. — Beard, Contemporary Hist., 
1-4, 50-54, 90-132. — Dunning, Reconstruction. — Elson, Side Lights, 
II. chs. ix-xii. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., 420-464. — Hart, Monroe 
Doctrine, ch. xi. — Haworth, Reconstruction and Union, 43-119. — 
Paxson, New Nation, 49-133. — Sparks, Nat. Development, chs. vi-xii, 
xvii, xix. — Wilson, Divisioti and Reunion, §§ 134-141, 151. 

Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., §§478-483. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, IV. §§156-161, 168-177; Source Book, §§132-137. — 
James, Readings, §§94-98. — Johnston, Am. Orations, IV. 238-269, 
296-328, 367-420. — MacDonald, Select Statutes, 85-109. 

Side Lights and Stories. Burnett, Throtigh One Administration. — 
Clemens (Mark Twain), Gilded Age. — Cullom, Fifty Years. — Sherman, 
Recollections. 

Pictures. Andrews, Last Quarter Century. — Frank Leslie's Weekly. — 
Harper's Weekly. — Mentor, serial nos. 77, 85. — Paine, Thos. Nast (Car- 
toons). — Scribner's. — Wilson, Am. People, V. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 314) I. What kind of man was President Grant? 2. What did 
Grant do to improve the civil service? 3. Was Grant a successful Presi- 
dent? 4 (For an essay). Good points about Ulysses S. Grant. 

(§ 315) 5- What troubles arose in the national government? 6. What 
was the Tweed Ring and how was it defeated? 



406 POLITICS AND PARTIES 

(§ 316) 7. How did the South treat the reconstruction governments? 
8. What was the Ku-Klux Klan? 9. How did reconstruction work out? 

(§317) 10. What was the result of the election of 1872? II. What was 
the "solid South"? 12. Why were cities important in politics? 13. 
How were politics affected by memories of the Civil War? by the consti- 
tutional amendments? 14. What were the principal "third parties"? 

(§ 318) 15. How was the United States interested in Cuba? 16 (For 
an essay). Scenes in Cuba. 17. How was slavery ended in America? 
18. Why was Santo Domingo not anne.xed? 

(§ 319) 19- What were the issues of the election of 1876? 20. What 
was the dispute over the election? 21. How was it settled in 1877? 22. 
What kind of President was Hayes? 

(§ 320) 23. Why was the currency of the country inconvenient? 24. 
Why was paper money popular? 25. How were specie payments resumed? 

(§321) 26. What was bimetallism? 27. What was the "i6-to-i" 
ratio? 28. What was free coinage? 29. Why did silver coinage cease in 
1873? 30. Why did silver miners desire free coinage of silver? 31. Why 
did the silver men and gold men clash? 

(§ 322) 32. Why was free silver popular? 33. What was the Bland 
Act? 34. How did the silver question end? 

(§ 323) 35- What was the result of the election of 1880? 36. How did 
Arthur become President? 37. What was the Pendleton Civil Service 
Act? 38. How has civil service reform affected states and cities? 

(§ 324) 39- Who were the candidates in the election of 1884? 40. Who 
was chosen President? 



CHAPTER XXX 
THE NEW SOUTH (1869-1885) 

326. Poverty of the South (1865-1890). — One plain 
result of the Civil War was that the seceding states and parts 
of the border states were ruined (§§291, 295). Large amounts 
of property had been destroyed by the armies on both sides. 
The four cotton crops raised from 1861 to 1864 could not be 
shipped during the war because of the blockade; and as the 
Union armies advanced, the cotton on their line of march 
was seized. Some landed estates were confiscated or sold for 
taxes by the federal government; and Charleston, Richmond, 
and other cities suffered from terrible fires. 

When the war ended, business was in confusion in the South. 
The specie, stocks of goods, and other savings had disappeared. 
The railroads were worn out. For a time there was no 
currency, for both Confederate and state paper notes were 
worthless. The state governments were heavily in debt ; but 
their most dreadful loss was that of nearly 300,000 of their 
most vigorous men in the war. 

Nevertheless the South had two great assets: a country 
rich in natural resources, and a people who had the courage to 
react from the losses of the war. Good land abounded, espe- 
cially the rich black cotton lands of the lower South. Corn 
could be raised anywhere for food; cotton would pay for flour 
and salt meats from the North. The southerners speedily 
found a market for the valuable red and yellow pine which 
stretched in a broad belt from North Carolina to Arkansas. 
Underneath the mountains were enormous stores of coal and 
iron, which as yet had hardly been touched. On the coast lay 
beds of phosphate rock, which would enrich the cotton fields. 
In Louisiana and Texas were great deposits of salt and oil. 
With laborers and a new business organization there would 

407 



408 THE NEW SOUTH 

soon be plenty of cotton, tobacco, corn, vegetables, pig iron, 
and lumber, to use and to sell. 

327. Negro Problem (1865-1885). —The first necessity for 
the South was labor. The old farmers who worked their own 
land returned to their farms; but the only supply of laborers 
for wages was the former slaves. Contrary to expectation 
few of the negroes went north, because most of them wanted 
to work on plantations. Many of the former owners, or their 
sons, were dead. How could the negroes be supported? 
There were no savings; and the field hands, unless they 
could draw pay every month, would starve. Somebody must 
come forward to find the means to furnish them with food 
while the crops were growing, or else the work must stop. 
Many plantations changed hands; some were cut up into 
small farms which were bought by former poor whites, who 
thus raised themselves above the conditions of the period be- 
fore the war (§ 196). 

The freedmen were employed on the plantations on various 
terms and conditions: (i) The " wage hands " receiv^ed 
money wages and bought their own supplies — so did the 
masons, blacksmiths, and carpenters in the cities. (2) Part 
of the negroes were "furnished"; that is, were allowed a 
certain amount each month in purchases at the plantation 
store. (3) A large number were " share hands "; that is, they 
worked a small tract on a plantation and got advances of 
supplies till the crop was sold. Then the planter figured up 
the amount produced and allowed to the workers from one 
third to two thirds of the proceeds, according to the previous 
bargain. 

Hundreds of thousands of freedmen somehow got it into 
their minds that the United States government was going to 
give each family " 40 acres and a mule." Though land was 
very cheap, few negroes had money, and not many knew 
how to save enough to pay for land. On the other hand, 
most white landowners would rather have the negroes work 
for them than sell them land and see them work for themselves. 
Still, many freedmen bought land, especially along the sea 
islands of South Carolina and Georgia. 



NEGRO PROBLEMS 409 

The negroes were free to move about, and a small part of 
them went into the towns and cities. There was work on 
the wharves, loading and unloading vessels, on the railroads 
and steamboats, in the tobacco factories and cotton presses 
and iron works; and mechanics and domestic servants could 
always find employment at fair wages. 

328. Negro Suffrage. — The freedmen, as free citizens, 
were members of the community. Negro crimes were dealt 
with by the regular courts and juries. By the Fifteenth 
Amendment the states were forbidden to take away the 
suffrage because of previous slavery (§ 297). Negroes could 
also hold office and become county commissioners and mem- 
bers of the legislatures and even governors. Twenty negroes 
in all had seats in the national House of Representatives, and 
there were two negro Senators. 

Perhaps the South might have become used to negro suf- 
frage, especially by intelligent colored men; but the states 
found themselves governed by a combination of white men, 
many of bad character, and of ignorant negroes who a few 
months before were bond slaves. Northern states and cities 
suffered at that time and long afterward from corrupt legis- 
lators; and perhaps for that reason they were not so much 
shocked by the carpetbag governments of the South. But 
those governments have left unhappy memories in the minds 
of the fair-minded people, both North and South. 

In some states, such as South Carolina, the white people 
paid most of the taxes, but the money was spent by 
negroes and white men led by corrupt whites. In a few 
states, especially Louisiana, the whites attempted to break 
up these governments by armed revolutions, but the troops 
under orders from Washington protected the carpetbaggers. 
The carpetbag governments, except in Florida, South Caro- 
lina, and Louisiana, lasted only two or three years, for the 
Ku-Klux Klan (§ 316) caused the negroes to stay away from 
the polls. It is hard to say now what would have happened 
if negro suffrage could have had a longer trial, till the freedmen 
learned to divide their votes between the great parties, in- 
stead of always voting one ticket. 



410 



THE NEW SOUTH 



In most of the former border states and in Texas, the 
colored men continued to vote, so that several hundred thou- 
sand negro votes have been cast at every presidential election 
since the Civil War. Elsewhere in the South, only a few thou- 
sand have gone to the polls. Since 1876 the negroes have 
not controlled any state or county governments, even where 
nine tenths of the inhabitants were colored. All the laws 
which govern them are made and carried out b\' white men. 

329. Advance in 
Education. — The re- 
construction govern- 
ments did some good 
things. One of them 
was to provide for free 
common public schools 
in every southern 
state, which were in- 
tended to give the boon 
of education to every 
child, white or black. 
All these schools, or- 
ganized by white, 
people, provided sepa- 
rate rooms and teachers 
for the negro pupils. 
In Charleston and a 




^<'%V''.%?S7iv;j>4-.;->'.;. 7... ■;■.■■'• 

Statue of Margaret Haughery, the " Orphan's Friend," 
in New Orleans. She was an angel of charity to 
white and black alike. This is the first statue 
erected in memory of a woman in the United States 



few Other places, white men and women taught the negro 
schools, but the almost universal rule was that none but 
negroes should teach negroes. 

Since there was then no class of educated southern negroes, 
these teachers had to be trained either in state normal schools, 
which were slowly provided, or else in schools like Hampton 
in Virginia and Tuskegee in Alabama, which were chiefly 
supported by gifts from the North. 

In the thinly settled country districts some white children 
and many negro children were provided with no schools, or 
the poorest kind of buildings and teachers. Still these rural 
schools have done good; for in 1870 about 32 per cent of the 



COTTON 411 

grown men and women in the South could not read or write, 
and by 19 10 the number was reduced to 16 per cent. 

The southern people actively began to build up white col- 
leges and universities. The public high schools were slower 
in starting. Nevertheless the South took its place alongside 
the North and the West in its desire to give its young people 
at least the chance of a good education. 

330. Cotton. — • Large expenditures for education were 
possible because of the rising profits from the southern farms, 
and especially from cotton. Cotton is measured in bales of 
about 500 pounds each; and the " bumper crop " of i860 was 
nearly 5,000,000 bales. For some years after the war it was 
only half as much, but prices were about twice as high as 
before. In 1884 the crop was 5,700,000 bales, which brought 
in about $240,000,000. It has since gradually risen to 
16,000,000 bales (1914). 

The advantages of cotton are that it grows in just such 
warm, moist climates as that of the lower South, can be raised 
by unskilled labor, and can always be sold for cash. It was 
found that some of the phosphate rock along the Atlantic 
coast could be made the basis of just the kind of fertilizer that 
cotton needed; and this made it possible to raise crops on 
poorer soil than before, and to restore worn-out lands. Nearly 
half the crop was raised by whites and negroes who owned 
land of their own and could raise only a bale or two of 
cotton. 

The profits of cotton are much increased by selling the seed, 
which is always worth at least a tenth as much as the cotton 
fiber. It contains a very good oil which when pressed out 
can hardly be distinguished from olive oil. The rest of the 
seed is made into oil cake, a good food for cattle. 

The South also raised a tobacco crop, — nearly all in the 
border states, — a small rice crop in South Carolina, and some 
sugar in Louisiana. For their own use the people raised corn 
and vegetables, and it was found that the coast of Virginia 
and the CaroHnas was near enough to the northern cities so 
that "truck farming" paid; that is, the raising of fruits and 
vegetables on a large scale for the northern market. 



412 



THE NEW SOUTH 



331. Mining and Manufactures. — Not till about 1870 did 
the South begin to make use of the immense quantities of 
coal and, iron ore in central Alabama, Tennessee, West Vir- 




An iron mine in Alabama 



ginia, and elsewhere. Blast furnaces were built for making pig 
iron, and rolling mills for bar iron, rails, and steel. Such cities 
as Birmingham in Alabama, Chattanooga in Tennessee, and 
Roanoke in Virginia, became centers of this great industry. 

It was found that negro labor was well adapted for the work, 
and pig iron could at most times be made cheaper in Alabama 
than anywhere else in the world. Virginia coal, especially the 
"Pocahontas" variety, proved excellent for the use of ocean 
steamers. Cheap iron and coal made it possible to start fac- 
tories of various kinds, such as the Locomotive Works in 
Richmond. 

The South turned to cotton mills, in the hope of using the 
cotton near the field where it was grown, and thus saving the 
freight to the North. The main difficulty was the labor. 
Negroes were tried, but somehow they did not seem to be 
adapted to mill work. Then thousands of poor white families 
were induced to come to the mill towns, where father, mother, 



MANUFACTURES AND TRANSPORTATION 



413 



and children could find work at fair wages. Immense cotton 
mills were put up at Columbia in South Carolina, Columbus 
in Georgia, Tallassee in Alabama, and many other places, 
where they utilized some of the excellent water power. Many 
thousand skilled workmen were drawn in by these industries; 
and the small farmers who did not go into the mills could 
make a better living than before by selling their farm products 
to the cities. Hence prosperity was distributed among several 
classes of the population. 

332. Transportation. — All the improvements of the South 
depended on a better system of transportation. Steamboat 
traffic, especially on the Mississippi, was at its high point. 
Steamers raced all the way from St. Louis to New Orleans. 
Steamers arrived from foreign countries at Norfolk, Savan- 
nah, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, and some other ports. 




Bales of cotton ready for shipment. Savannah 



The southern railroads were practically rebuilt, with large 
extensions. In 1870 the South had only 15,000 miles out 
of the total of 53,000 miles in the United States. In 1890 the 
railroads of the South had increased to 51,000 miles out of a 
total of 164,000 miles in the United States. 



414 



THE NEW SOUTH 



The short separate routes were Hnked up into several great 
systems. All the big rivers were bridged, including a great 
bridge across the Mississippi at Memphis. The southern 
railroads had a wider gauge than the northern, but by 1896 
all had been narrowed a few inches to correspond with the 
other roads in the country. Much of the money for these 
big enterprises was borrowed in the North or in Europe; but 
the South had good credit, and states, railroads, and banks 

found no difficulty in 
getting all the money 
that they needed for 
their development. 

333. Wealth and 
Prosperity. — ^The 
growth of the South was 
shown also in its cities. 
The urban population 
slowly increased from 9 
per cent in i860 to 12 
per cent in 1890. Part 
of the wealth of the re- 
gion was going into new 
buildings and schools, 
into streets and street- 
car lines, into parks and 
boulevards. 

Interior cities grew fast; among them were Atlanta, Mont- . 
gomery, and Memphis. Out in Texas the struggling towns 
changed into such prosperous cities as Houston and Dallas. 
New Orleans lies a hundred milef from the sea. In 1879 the 
great engineer. Captain Eads, built jetties which narrowed 
the mouths of the Mississippi so that the immense volume of 
water coming down the river would scour out deep channels. 
This opened New Orleans to the big steamers. 

The great need of the South was the right kind of laborers. 
The field hands were not very steady, and though they usually 
made contracts for a year, they used often to drift away in 
the middle of the season. The town negroes were partly me- 




Interior of a cotton mill 



WEALTH AND PROSPERITY 415 

chanics and partly lived by small jobs, the women supporting 
many of the families by housework or laundry work. 

Nevertheless the South began to come forward very fast. 
A cotton exposition was held in 1881 in Atlanta, which taught 
the people how much could be done in making up their own 
cotton into cloth. Part of the profits of the plantations and 
factories went into new banks. In all the cities and prosper- 
ous towns good houses, business blocks, and public buildings 
were built. By about 1890 the South had risen out of the 
poverty resulting from the Civil War. 

334. Summary. — At the end of the war the South was 
almost ruined; but it abounded in rich land^ and unworked 
forests and mines, and the people had the courage to begin 
again. A new system of plantation work was started, most 
of the negroes receiving a monthly allowance in food and 
supplies. Some of them bought land for themselves. 

Under the Fifteenth Amendment, negroes had a vote on the 
same terms as white people. The whites laid the corruption 
of the carpetbag governments to negro sufTrage; therefore, 
in the lower South, negroes were prevented from voting. 

Free pub'ic schools were provided in all the southern 
states, for both whites and negroes. The town schools were 
fairly good, but in the thinly settled country, the schools 
were generally poorly taught. For higher education there 
were state universities and private colleges, and also several 
schools and colleges for the negroes which were kept up 
largely by gifts from the North. 

Cotton came back to its old importance in the South. 
Truck farming for the northern markets sprang up along 
the Atlantic coast. By the use of cottonseed for its oil, the 
value of the cotton crop was increased. 

Rich mines of coal and iron ore were opened, and several 
large manufacturing cities grew up. The cotton mills gave 
employment to thousands of the former poor whites, and 
were very profitable to the owners. The old water lines were 
again busy, especially the Mississippi River, and railroads 
were built from end to end of the South. 

The result of all this activity was that slowly the South 



4l6 THE NEW SOUTH 

became well off. The cities grew fast and new ones sprang 
up. The mouth of the Mississippi was opened to large 
steamers. Negro field labor was unsteady, but there were 
plenty of whit.- and black mechanics; and by the year 1890 
the South was richer and more prosperous than ever before. 

REFERENCES 

Histories. Beard, Contemporary Ilist., 4-26, 46-49. — Coman, In- 
dustrial Hist., 307-312. — Dewey, National Problems, ch. x. — Fish, 
Dev. of Am. Nation., 433-437. — Hart, Southern South. — Paxson, New 
Nation, ch. xii. — South in Building of Nation, VI, X. — Wilson, Di- 
vision and Reunion, § 144. 

Sources. Harding, Select Orations, nos. 32-34. — Hart, Contemporaries^ 
IV. §§203, 205, 208. — James, Readings, §103. — Old South Leaflets 
no. 149. 

Side Lights and Stories. Craddock, Young Mountaineers. — Dickson, 
The Ravenels. — Dunbar, Folks from Dixie. — Grady, New South. — 
Harris, Uncle Remus. — Jervey, Elder Brother. — Page, The Southerner. 
— Smith, Col. Carter of Cartersville. — Washington, Up from Slavery. — 
Wilson, Southern Mountaineers. 

Pictures. Andrews, Last Quarter Century. — Century. — Dunbar, Hist, 
of Travel in Am. — Harper's Monthly. — Mentor, serial no. 131. — Scribner's. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 326) I. What was the economic and business condition of the South 
after the war? 2. What were the business advantages of the South? 

(§ 327) 3- What were the labor difficulties in the South? 4. How were 
the freedmen employed? 5. What did the negroes do for themselves? 

(§ 328) 6. How did the negroes stand in the eyes of the law? 7. How 
did negro suffrage work? 8. How were the last carpetbag governments 
overthrown? 9. What political right have the negroes kept? 

(§329) 10. How were schools organized in the South? 11 (For an 
essay). Education at Hampton or at Tuskegee. 12. How did the edu- 
cation of the whites progress? 

(§ 330) 13- How did the cotton crops increase? 14 (For an essay). 
Life on a modern cotton plantation. 15. How was the growth of cotton 
extended? 16. What other products come from cotton? 17. What other 
crops were raised in the South? 

(§ 331) 18. How did iron and steel making grow up in the South? 19. 
How did cotton mills arise? 

(§ 332) 20. How were southern railroads extended? 21. How did the 
South raise money for such improvements? 

(§ 333) 22. How did prosperity appear in the southern cities? 23 (For 
an essay). Construction of the Eads jetties. 24. What were southern 
labor difficulties? 25. What were the evidences of prosperity? 



CHAPTER XXXI 
BUSINESS AND LABOR (1869-1890) 

335. Inventions. — All sections and all industries shared 
in the benefit of the many inventions that relieved the 
muscles of men and animals; but none was so valuable as a 
new process for making steel cheaply. An Englishman named 
Bessemer discovered (1864) how to make steel out of cast iron 
so that it cost no more than ordinary rolled iron, while it was 
much harder, tougher, and stronger. 

This discovery at once cheapened transportation, for it be- 
came possible to use steel rails instead of the weaker wrought- 
iron rails. The steel rail was so strong that heavier locomo- 
tives could be used, and they could draw heavier trains, which 
could carry more freight. The same tough and cheap steel was 
used in ships and for framing high buildings, which gradually 
developed into the modern skyscrapers. Cheap steel meant 
cheaper machines and tools of every kind. 

The tall buildings could not have been put up or used with- 
out elevators, which came into wide use in hotels, office build- 
ings, factories, and some private houses. Vessels were quickly 
loaded and unloaded by steam power, and a machine was in- 
vented which would lift up an open steel car holding fifty 
tons of coal and tip it over sidewise so that the coal could run 
into a coal pocket or a vessel. 

Electricity had years before been harnessed for human use 
by the telegraph (§ 224). In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell 
perfected the electric telephone, a device by which the vibra- 
tions that cause sounds can be transmitted over a wire and 
heard at the other end. In a short time this little device 
grew into an enormous business with millions of telephones 
and many thousands of employees. The same year, Thomas 

hart's sch. hist. — 24 417 



4i8 



BUSINESS AND LABOR 



A. Edison invented the 
phonograph, by which 
the sound vibrations 
can be recorded on a 
(Hsk or cylinder and 
then reproduced. 
This develojied into a 
great business of sup- 
j) 1 >' i n g talking 
machines and dicta- 

II)hones; that is, ma- 
chines which will auto- 
matically take down 
and record con\'ersa- 
lions. 

Electricity was also 
a p {:) 1 i e d to lights: 
first the big and 
costly arc lights, then 
the i n candescent 
1 a ni ps, which gi\'C 
abundant light with 
very little heat. 
336. House and Farm Inventions. — Great office and 
apartment buildings could not ha\e been inhabited by millions 
of people had not new means been discovered of furnishing 
heat. Hot-air furnaces w^orked well in moderate-sized houses; 
and the kitchen stoves and open fireplaces were aided by base 
burners, oil stoves, and gas stoves. For larger buildings and 
many small ones, steam or hot-water systems were put in. 

The housekeeper found many new conveniences for furnish- 
ing and preparing food. Canned meats, vegetables, and fruits 
were furnished by the million cans. Ice w^as stored in the 
colder parts of the country and made artificially in factories 
in the South; and that made it possible to keep food stored 
in large and small refrigerators. Cereals, coconuts, raisins, 
and many other food products were packed in parcels. A 
great industry was introduced by canning the abundant salmon 




Thomas A. Edison in his laboiatory 



HOUSE AND FARM INVENTIONS 



419 



and other fish of the northwest coast (§ 303). An immense fruit 
business was built up, with daily steamers bringing bananas 
and other tropical fruits from the West Indies, Central 
America, and Florida; and California oranges found a large 
sale throughout the Union. 

Two machines that made a great difference in American 
life were the typewriter and the bicycle, introduced about 




The development of the bicycle, 1818-1915 

1880. The typewriter at once gave employment to thousands 
of men and women; and the method of dictating letters and 
documents to stenographers to be copied out on the typewriter 
was a great convenience to business and professional men. 
The bicycle, which at first was a tall and clumsy machine, 
was soon developed into a low, compact affair, on which a 
sturdy rider could travel as much as a hundred miles in a day. 




Modern combined harvester and reaper at work in Washington 

Mowers, reapers, and other farm machinery were improved. 
Harvesting machines were built to be drawn by forty horses; 
as these cross the fields, they leave the grain cut, threshed, 
and tied into bags. In some parts of the country farmers 



420 BUSINESS AND LABOR 

used natural gas for heating and lighting, and everywhere the 
farm telephone proved a blessing. 

After 1896 the government helped to make farm life attrac- 
tive by introducing a system of rural free delivery by which 
letters were brought to the gateway of the farm. The state 
and national governments also worked to improve the condi- 
tions of the farmer by showing how to use better seed, how to 
feed cattle, and in general how to get the largest return from 
the farm. 

337. Large Corporations (1865-1885). — Before the Civil 
War some railroad corporations began to combine into 
larger corporations. For instance, m 1853 five short lines, 
situated between Albany and Buffalo, were united into the 
New York Central Railroad. In 1869 Cornelius Vanderbilt 
added the Hudson River Railway and thus made a line four 
hundred and fifty miles long from New York to Buffalo, 
with many branches. About forty local telegraph companies 
combined into the Western Union Telegraph Company. 

Manufacturing companies also began to combine. A new 
industry sprang up about i860 when large quantities of 
heavy mineral oil, called petroleum, were discovered in western 
Pennsylvania; like deposits were found later in many other 
parts of the country. By a cheap and easy process of " refin- 
ing," a beautiful illuminating oil, as clear as water, could be 
drawn from petroleum. For about ten years the refining was 
done by small firms and companies. Then appeared (1870) 
the Standard Oil Company of Cleveland, which built immense 
oil refineries, and obtained such favorable freight rates that it 
drove many of the other refineries out of business. Finally it 
built a pipe line from the Pennsylvania oil fields to the sea- 
coast, and could get along without the railroads. 

This idea of " combining " to secure control of some one line 
of industry spread throughout the country. It was applied to 
the making of sugar, of hardware, of cordage, of spool cotton, 
and of many other products. Individuals and firms did not 
like to see business slipping out of their hands, but for a long 
time they could find no way of preventing these combinations, 
which came to be called " trusts." 



BUSINESS AND LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 42 1 

338. Labor Organizations (1865-1886). — Previous to the 
Civil War the only national labor unions were those of skilled 
workmen, such as the printers or the molders. The miners and 
railroad men were not organized into unions, and few employ- 
ers of any kind had trouble with their employees. Most of 
the owners and managers had started as wage workers, knew 
their hands personally, and if there was any dispute could talk 
things over in a friendly way. 

During and after the war more powerful organizations were 
formed, such as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers 
(1863). The first successful national union open to workmen 
of all trades was the Knights of Labor (1869). Both the 
special unions and this general union always desired to put for- 
ward their officers to settle disputes with local shops or rail- 
roads, instead of leaving the settlement to committees from the 
local unions; but many employers refused to talk over labor 
troubles with anybody except men in their own employment. 




Garment makers at work in a shop in New York 

The labor unions were very anxious to secure agreements 
for the " closed shop," by which they meant that no person 
should be employed in any shop or works unless he was a 
member of the local union in his trade. Many employers 
insisted upon the " open shop," by which they meant that 



422 



BUSINESS AND LABOR 



they should be free to employ any man whether he belonged 
to a union or not. Many employers went further and refused 
to employ a man unless he would agree not to join the 
union. 

It was easy to see that the railroad men had a very strong 
position, because if they struck and the railroads did not run, 












ml i^m-'^ ^^ ^ 



Swing bridge over the Chicago River. Drawn from a photograph made before the 

fire in 1871 

most factories and mines would have to shut down. The 
first great test of the strength of the railroad organization was 
made in 1877 by a strike which began in Pittsburgh and spread 
to many other places. Unfortunately for the men's cause, 
rioters took advantage of the situation to set fire to trains, 
freight houses, and buildings; and they could not be put 
down except by calling out United States troops. 

A new national organization now arose called the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor, which was a union not of men, 
but of labor unions; and it was governed by conventions 
of delegates from those unions. Since the federation con- 
trolled unions all over the country, labor leaders worked by 
what they called "sympathetic strikes"; that is, if a strike 
were going on in one shop or trade, they would call out the 
men in other shops or trades, so as to compel the employers 



STRIKES AND CALAMITIES 423 

to come to terms. They tried to make the employers " recog- 
nize the union"; that is, agree in case of disputes with their 
workmen to discuss matters with officers of the American 
Federation. 

339. Calamities. — In the midst of great prosperity, the 
people of the United States suffered from many local accidents. 
Floods repeatedly swept down the Ohio River, destroying 
millions of dollars' worth of property; the Mississippi broke 
its levees, and submerged thousands of square miles. No 
other civilized country had so many flimsy buildings. Be- 
cause of wooden construction a fire in Chicago in 1871 swept 
through the heart of the city with a loss of 190 million dollars. 
The next year a similar fire burned about half the business 
section of Boston with a loss of 73 millions, and since that 
time Baltimore and San Francisco (1906) have suffered in 
the same way. All these cities quickly recovered; but the 
annual fire loss of the United States amounted in this period 
to about $100,000,000. 

Carelessness was chiefly responsible for the terrible forest 
fires which raged in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
out on the Pacific coast, destroying immense amounts of 
timber that will never grow again. Another class of accidents 
came from weak dams. The giving way of such a dam in 
western Pennsylvania in 1889 caused the almost total destruc- 
tion of the flourishing city of Johnstown and a loss of over 
2000 lives. 

340. Railroad Building. — All this time new railroads were 
being built from St. Louis and Kansas City southward to New 
Orleans and Galveston. In course of time the railroads sup- 
planted the steamboats, till the Mississippi River was almost 
deserted. It was a period of " railroad kings." Cornelius 
Vanderbilt of New York extended the New York Central 
Railroad (§ 337) by a network of railroads leading from 
Bufifalo to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and 
Chicago; and the whole system was called " the Vanderbilt 
roads." Another system of the same kind was the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, of which the president was Thomas Scott. It 
consolidated with lines from Pittsburgh west to Cleveland, 



424 BUSINESS AND LABOR 

Toledo, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, and built east- 
ward from Philadelphia to the city of New York. 

These two were the greatest and richest railroad companies 
in the East, but there were several other railroads from the 
Atlantic coast to the West, especially the Erie, the Baltimore 
and Ohio, and the Chesapeake and Ohio; and they tried to 
take business away from the two big systems by making 
lower rates. This led to " railroad wars " in which passenger 
rates were cut as low as one dollar from Cincinnati to Wash- 
ington. To stop these wars the various roads formed what 
they called a " pool," in which each of the competing railroads 
was to have a certain percentage of all the through freight 
that was offered. 

341. Rapid Transit. — Meanwhile population was pouring 
into the cities till it was difficult to get about in the rush 
hours. The old-fashioned horse cars were slow, and crowded 
the streets. As business increased, the " franchises " — the 
right to run cars through the streets — came to be valuable. 
When they ran out, the companies tried to get new grants 
on the old terms, — that is, without any payment to the 
cities, — and that led to contests and scandals. 

The city of New York sought relief by chartering companies 
(1870) to build elevated roads, which were really iron or steel 
bridges running lengthwise through the streets, and carrying 
light passenger trains. This example was later followed by 
Brooklyn (afterwards annexed to New York) and by Boston, 
Chicago, and Philadelphia. 

For driving street cars on the surface lines, compressed air 
and steam were tried without success, and then came the 
cable system, first used in the steep streets of San Francisco 
(1873). Through a slot between the rails a grip reached down 
from the cars and caught hold of a cable which was running 
steadily in one direction and drew the car along. Later came 
the electric trolley lines. 

342. Improvements in Transportation. — The consolidation 
of railroad lines into systems, and the improved tracks, loco- 
motives, and air brakes enabled the railroads to reduce their 
freight rates. With the big new cars one train crew could 



IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION 



4^5 



handle as many tons of freight as would have needed five train 
crews in earUer years. A saving was made also by the build- 
ing of bridges to take the place of expensive ferries. The first 
great bridge in the East 
was that across the 
Hudson at Albany in 
1866. By 1885 the 
Ohio, Missouri, and 
Mississippi rivers were 
bridged at about forty 
points. The great rail- 
road systems made 
through trains possible. 
Several roads built their 
own sleeping cars; then 
companies were formed 
to operate sleeping cars 
on long runs; but in the 
end the Pullman Car 
Company secured this 
business on nearly all 
the systems. Parcels 
weighing more than 
four pounds were not 
received in the United 
States mail till 1913. 

Meanwhile the small express companies gradually combined, 
until nearly all the business was done by five companies: the 
Adams, the American, the United States, the Southern, and 
the Wells, Fargo and Co. They owned no cars, but collected 
packages, sent them by the railroads, and delivered them at 
the other end. Their rates were high, and their profits large. 
Mail and telegraphic communication was much improved. 
All the little local telegraph companies finally came into 
one or the other of two main systems, the Postal Telegraph 
and the Western Union (§ 337). Long-distance telephoning 
was a new and valued means of carrying on business at a 
great distance. The United States government soon after 




Building a steel bridge 



426 



BUSINESS AND LABOR 



the Civil War improved its postal service by delivering letters 
in cities, by selling money orders, and by providing special 
railroad cars in which mail could be sorted while the train 
was in motion. In later times it added other improvements, 
such as rural free delivery (§ 336), postal savings banks (1910), 
and the parcel post (1913). 

343. Water Routes and the Isthmus Canal. — Great 
changes came about in water transportation. Most of the 
old canals (§ 186) went out of use and the great interior river 
routes slowly lost business. On the Great Lakes, shippers 
developed a trade of carrying coal up the Lakes and bringing 
back iron ore and grain in big steamers. On the ocean, lakes, 




Side-wheel steamboats racing on the Mississippi River. From a lithograph of 1863 

and rivers, screw propellers took the place of most of the old- 
fashioned side-wheels on steamers. In 1869 the White Star 
line from New York to Liverpool began to build a larger type 
of steamers, so fast and so well designed that they could travel 
on schedule time in nearly any kind of weather. 

One of the greatest enterprises for trade and commerce 
ever undertaken was a canal across the narrow Isthmus of 
Panama. Old ideas for a canal from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Pacific were revived after the Suez Canal was opened from 
the Mediterranean to the Red Sea (1869) by the French 
engineer De Lesseps. He next proposed to build a canal 
across the narrow part of America, and selected the Panama 



WATER TRANSPORTATION 



427 



route as shorter and easier than the route across Nicaragua. 
A canal across Panama would be only fifty miles long from 
sea to sea, the land was only three hundred feet high, and 
De Lesseps thought he could cut a channel down to sea level. 
A French company was 
formed for that pur- 
pose (1878), but Presi- 
dent Hayes said that 
any such canal would be 
part of the coast line of 
the United States. 

344. Complaints 
about Transportation. 
— After 1873 the rail- 
roads were not so popu- 
lar as they had once 
been. Many of their 
managers forgot that 
all American railroads 
and steamers were 
"common carriers"; 
that is, that they were 
bound by law to accept 
all the freight and pas- 
sengers that came to 
them, and to make the 
same charges to all for 
the same service. Some of them gave special secret rates to 
large shippers or personal friends. They looked on railroading 
as a private business, and considered that they had the right 
to charge such rates, to pay such wages, and to run such trains 
as suited themselves. 

It w^as hard to find out whether the shippers were treated 
alike, for the roads were not obliged to print or publish their 
rates. For example, they could make a special rate for those 
who shipped so many hundred carloads a year, and that 
might apply to only one favored company. Under the 
pool system (§ 340) freight was sometimes sent by one rail- 



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A great modem trans-Atlantic liner beside the earliest 
ship of the same line, to show the comparative size 



428 BUSINESS AND LABOR 

road when the shipper desired it to go by another Hne. Thou- 
sands of favored people received passes for themselves and their 
families, while others made up the cost by paying the regular 
fares. Small railroads were sometimes crowded hard by the 
large systems. 

Many shippers objected to the " short-haul " system, 
which meant that railroads would charge more to send freight, 
say from New York to Toledo, than from New York to Chi- 
cago — a longer haul by 250 miles. Rates were often so made 
as to help a particular city or corporation against other 
cities or business men. Some railroad officers held stock in 
sleeping-car lines, fast freight lines, express companies, and 
companies formed to build the railroads; and they made 
contracts with themselves, giving themselves larger profits 
than other stockholders. 

Very little could be done by the state governments to curb 
the railroads, because they were such a tremendous power in 
politics. In some states they succeeded in having their friends 
elected to the legislatures; and for years it was difficult for a 
man who openly opposed the railroads to secure election to 
an important public office. On the other hand the railroads 
made possible the rapid settlement of the West and the wealth 
of the East. By 1885 it was clear that nothing but the national 
government could control the great railroads, which were rich 
and powerful, and which stretched through many states. 

345. Summary. — This chapter records the growth of 
inventions, of large and powerful business and labor organiza- 
tions, and of new systems of transportation by land and water, 
down to 1890. 

The progress of invention made it possible to do more work 
with less manual labor than formerly. Factories, private 
business, homes, and farms used new machinery of many kinds. 

As wealth and business increased, great business corpo- 
rations sprang up, some of which were called trusts. The 
workmen on their side began to organize in a stronger way 
with powerful central unions. This led to strikes, and the 
workmen no longer felt that their interests were the same as 
those of the employers. 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 429 

The country suffered from great floods and storms, and 
carelessness in building caused terrible fires. 

The railroads of the East, South, and West were extended 
and short lines were linked into systems, of which the strong- 
est were the New York Central and the Pennsylvania. In 
the cities the old-fashioned horse cars were given up for ele- 
vated roads and cable systems, and the trolley car system was 
invented. Many great bridges were built for highways and 
railroads. 

Freight rates were reduced, and the running of through trains 
with sleeping cars was made easy by consolidated lines. The 
express business came into the hands of five strong companies. 
The old canals were little used. New and larger steamers were 
used on the Great Lakes and in the ocean trade. The Presi- 
dent was aroused when the French undertook to build a ship 
canal across the Isthmus of Panama. 

The railroads, although under the law they were common 
carriers, made distinctions between cities, lines of business, 
and individual shippers. Under the short-haul principle they 
would often make lower rates for long distances than for short 
distances. A feeling arose that the big corporations and espe- 
cially the railroads needed regulation. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Dunning, Reconstruction, 224. — Sparks, Nat. Development, 
206. 

Histories. Beard, Contemporary Hist., 27-41, 67-76, 143-163. — 
Bogart, Economic Hist., chs. xxii-xxiv, xxvii, xxx. — Coman, Industrial 
Hist., 285-307. — Dewey, National Problems, 40-56, 1 17-123. — Moore, 
Industrial Hist., 317-324, 468-480. — Paxson, New Nation, 67-79, 9^- 
97, 1 19-124. — Southworth, Builders of Our Country, chs. xxvii, xxx. — 
Sparks, Nat. Development, chs. i-v, xiii, xviii. 

Soixrces. Am. Hist. Leaflets, no. 34. — Commons, Documentary Hist, 
of Am. Industrial Society, IX, X. — Hart, Contemporaries, IV. §§ 162, 
165. — James, Readings, § 97. 

Side Lights and Stories. Bacheller, Cricket Heron. — Century. — 
Foote, Cceur d'Alene. — Harper's Monthly. — Harper's Weekly. — How, 
J. B. Eads. — Raymond, Peter Cooper. — Scribner's. 

Pictures. Bogart, Economic Hist. — Coman, Industrial Hist. — Frank 
Leslie's Weekly. — Harper's Weekly. — Mentor, serial no. 87. — Scientific 
American. 



430 BUSINESS AND LABOR 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 335) I- What were the principal inventions of this period? 2. How 
did cheap steel affect industry? 3 (For an essay). A visit to a steel 
plant. 4. What were the most important electric inventions? 

(§ 336) 5- What were the most important household inventions? 6. 
What new machines for general use affected industry? 7. What were the 
most important farm inventions? 8. What was done to make farm life 
attractive? 

(§ 337) 9- How were railroads gathered into large systems? 10. How 
was the oil industry developed? II (For an essay). Visit to an oil well. 
12. What were the trusts? 

(§ 338) 13- How were disputes at first settled between employers and 
employees? 14. How were labor unions formed? 15 (For an essay). A 
meeting of a labor union. 16. What was the policy of the unions as to 
settling disputes? 17. What is the closed shop? 18. How did the rail- 
road strikes result? 19 (For an essay). The railroad strike of 1877. 
20. What were the methods of the labor federations? 

(§ 339) 21. What calamities befell the country? 22. What damage 
was caused by fire and flood? 23 (For an essay). The Johnstown flood; 
or the San Francisco fire. 

(§340) 24. What railroad systems were built up? 25. I low were "rail- 
road wars" settled? 

(§ 341) 26. How were street railroads managed? 27. What are fran- 
chises? 28. What caused the building of elevated roads? 29. What were 
cable cars? 

(§ 342) 30. How was railroad service improved? 31 (For an essay). 
The building of a bridge across the Ohio or across the Mississippi. 32. How 
was the express business carried on? 33 How were means of communica- 
tion improved? 

(§ 343) 34- How was water transportation improved? 35 (For an 
essay). A steamer trip on the Great Lakes or along the Atlantic or along 
the Pacific coast. 36. What were the plans for a canal across the Isthmus 
of Panama? 

(§ 344) 37. What is a "common carrier"? 38. What privileges did 
favored patrons of the railroads receive? 39. What was the "short-haul" 
system? 40. What could the states do to control the railroads? 41. 
What did the railroads do for the country? 



CHAPTER XXXII 
DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS (1885-1897) 

346. President Cleveland (1885-1889). — When the new 
President came into office in March, 1885 (§ 324), the Repub- 
licans felt as though the sky were going to fall. Some " stal- 
wart " Republicans predicted that the colored people would 
again be made slaves, and that the Confederate bonds would 
be paid off by the national government. 

President Cleveland had had little political experience and 
was not much known outside of New York state. He was a 
gruff, plain man with a set purpose to make a strong govern- 
ment. He felt that such a government ought to keep up the 
financial system of banks and corporations that then existed. 
He was opposed to the protective tariff which was strongly 
supported by the Republican party, and he meant to hit it 
hard. He had no powerful personal friends and backers and 
his only hope of success was that the people would approve 
the things that he wanted to do. 

There had been Republican Presidents without a break for 
twenty-four years, and few Democrats were in federal offices. 
The Democratic politicians, therefore, were in favor of turning 
out many of the officeholders, on the ground that they had 
been using the time paid for by the government in working 
for the Republican party. Cleveland called such party work- 
ers " offensive partisans," and removed over 3000 persons. 
Subordinates were dismissed right and left so that after a 
few years most of the employees of the government were 
Democrats. Still, Cleveland did not disturb the small clas- 
sified service, which had been set up by President Afthur 
(§ 323); and just at the end of his term he added over 5000 
railway mail clerks to that service. 

431 



432 



DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS 



347. New States (1889-1890). — During his administra- 
tion Cleveland signed bills looking to the admission of four 
new states; and in November, 1889, they all came into the 
Union: (i) North Dakota (39th state) was a prairie farming 
region, extending across the upper Missouri Valley, with rich 
wheat lands. The population at the time of admission was 
about 190,000. (2) South Dakota (40th state) included a rich 




Corn Palace at Mitchell, South Dakota. The outside of the entire building is 
decorated with ears of corn of various colors 

prairie belt in its eastern section and a mountainous, mining 
country in the west. Its population was 330,000. (3) Mon- 
tana (41st state), with a population of 130,000, made a huge 
state nearly as large as Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois to- 
gether. Its chief industry was cattle ranching, with some 
mining. (4) Washington (42d state) had 350,000 people. It 
was an immense state including a magnificent seacoast and a 
large part of the Columbia Riv^er Valley. 

In 1890 came two more states: (i) Idaho (43d state) was a 
large lumber and mining region with some rich land and a 
population of 90,000. (2) Wyoming (44th state) had then 
the small population of 62,000 but a large area of grazing and 
mineral land. At the northwestern corner is the wonderful 
Yellowstone geyser region. 



434 DEMOCR/VTIC ADMINISTRATIONS 

Most of the twelve Senators from the six new western states 
were in favor of a silver coinage, and their presence aided in 
the passage of the Sherman Silver Act of 1890 (§ 322). 

348. Tariff Discussion (1883-1889). — The protective tariff 
which had been made during the Civil War was not a party 
question; duties were made high because the United States 
needed money. After the war many of the high duties were 
reduced. The United States kept up the tax on liquors and 
tobacco, and for the ten years from 1880 to 1890 the income 
of the government was many millions larger than its outgo, 
so that every year there was a surplus in the treasury. 

One way of avoiding the surplus was to spend more money; 
another way was to reduce the tariff". In 1883 an attempt was 
made to carry out the latter method, but the majority of 
Congress wanted to keep up the system of protection to 
American industries (§ 184), and they passed a new tariff act 
in which many duties were increased. 

The Democratic party was in general against the high tariff, 
and President Cleveland took up the question as the most 
important issue before the people. In 1887 he sent to Con- 
gress a message insisting that the tariff be revised so as to 
make it more reasonable and more consistent with itself; and 
that it be reduced so as to prevent a surplus and to cheapen 
the cost of goods. He said something must be done, because 
" it is a condition which confronts us — not a theory." 

On that issue he was renominated by the Democrats and 
appealed to the country in the election of 1888. The Re- 
publicans put up Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a grandson of 
President William H. Harrison, hoping that he could carry that 
close state. New York by a small majority chose Republican 
electors, and as in 1884 (§324) the large electoral vote of New 
York turned the scale. At the same time the Republicans 
secured a majority in both houses of Congress. 

349. Tariff Arguments. — The election of 1888 was the first 
clear test in many years of what the American people thought 
about the tariff. From 1816 to 1833 (seventeen years) there 
had been a series of protective tariffs, which caused the nulli- 
fication act of South Carolina (§212). From 1833 to i86i 



TARIFF QUESTIONS 435 

(twenty-eight years) was an era of low tariffs. From 1861 to 
1883 (twenty- two years) the tariff rates were raised or lowered 
according as the government needed money. From 1883 to 
1913 (thirty years), there was constant discussion about the 
desirability of a high tariff, and six different tariff laws were 
passed. 

The talk and agitation in Cleveland's administration 
brought out the fact that the voters of the country were about 
equally divided between the friends of high duties and those of 
low duties. Most of the Republicans were protectionists, and 
most of the Democrats were low-tariff men. The southern 
farmers and planters and part of the western farmers wanted 
low duties, so as to keep down the cost of the goods that they 
bought; but some of the farmers, especially in the eastern 
states and the new silver states of the Northwest, favored 
protection, because they thought it built up manufacturing 
cities which would buy their products. 

How did the various sections in the Union divide upon this 
important question? The workmen in factories in the East 
and the middle states which were benefited by protection, 
especially in the wool and cotton mills and the iron works, 
naturally voted for a tariff in favor of the industries which 
they were helping to build up. The city of New York, as the 
greatest port in the country, preferred low duties that would 
bring about a lively commerce. Southern manufacturers of 
cotton and iron wanted a tariff on those products. 

Some of the arguments for protection by high tariff have been 
stated earlier in this book (§ 184). It is interesting to know 
some other arguments, which came to the front after 1880: 
(i) The tariff diversified industry; that is, it helped to de- 
velop mines and manufactures in the United States as well as 
farming. (2) The tariff raised wages. (3) It was fair to buy 
of Americans and sell to them rather than to do business with 
people in foreign countries. 

Among the modern anti-tariff arguments were the following: 
(i) The tariff fostered trusts and monopolies. (2) The tariff 
produced more revenue than was needed for national expenses 
and thereby caused extravagance. (3) The tariff raised the 

hart's sch. hist. — 25 



436 DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS 

cost of living. (4) Protection played into the hands of great 
manufacturing corporations, which subscribed large sums to 
the party campaign funds and then demanded favors in the 
tariff acts. 

All these arguments had some weight and it was hard to 
balance them and decide which was the best course. During 
Benjamin Harrison's administration (1889-1893) the Republi- 
cans did not reduce the taxes on imports but spent the sur- 
pluses as they came along on public buildings, on pensions to the 
Civil War veterans and their widows, and on a new navy, 
which was begun in Arthur's administration. 

350. Three New Tariffs (i 890-1 897). — Between 1890 and 
1897 three different tariff laws were passed. Each was drawn 
up by a committee of the House of Representatives, called the 
Ways and Means Committee; and each was named after 
the chairman of that committee because he naturally had 
great influence over what went into the bill. 

In 1890 the chairman was William McKinley of Ohio, one 
of the ablest and most popular members of Congress. He had 
been a soldier boy in the Civil War and was remarkable for his 
cordial nature and his good temper. His " McKinley Bill," 
as passed by the Republican majority in 1890, made the duties 
on the average about one tenth higher than they had been 
before. Within a few weeks after the bill went into effect it 
was noticed that the prices on dress goods and some other 
things had suddenly gone up much more than one tenth. 
That made the bill so unpopular that the Democrats w^ere able 
to carry the elections for the House of Representatives that 
fall (1890). 

The presidential election of 1892 was somewhat confused by 
a new third party. For several years western and southern 
farmers had been joining a new order called the " Farmers' 
Alliance." That movement led to a " People's party," mem- 
bers of which were commonly called " Populists." In the 
campaign of 1892 they put forward a candidate. General 
Weaver, who drew away many Republican votes. They 
carried four states in the West, including Kansas, and cast a 
total of more than a million votes. 



NEW TARIFFS 437 

Harrison and Cleveland were again nominated for the presi- 
dency by the Repubhcan and Democratic parties, and made 
the most of the tariff issue as presented by the McKinley Bill. 
Cleveland carried New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the states of the solid South and 
was elected. For the first time since 1856 the Democrats 
gained control of the presidency. House, and Senate, all at the 
same time. 

The Democratic majority was strong enough in the House 
to draw up and pass a new tariff bill first called the "Wilson 
Bill." This bill would have considerably reduced the duties 
of the McKinley Bill, but when it went to the Senate several 
high-tariff Democratic Senators, under the leadership of Gor- 
man of Maryland, raised some of them again. The House 
finally gave in and accepted the rates proposed by the Senate. 
The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act (1894), which came out of 
this squabble, turned out to be not much lower than the 
McKinley tariff after all. 

When the Republicans came into power again they passed 
the Dingley tariff (1897), which raised the duties higher 
than in the McKinley Bill. These frequent changes were bad 
for business because no importer or manufacturer knew what 
to expect. 

351. Interstate Commerce (1887). — While the people were 
busy discussing the silver question (§322) and the tariff ques- 
tion, a third issue came up that had to be settled. This was 
about the railroads, which owned property worth thousands 
of millions of dollars and were forming huge systems (§ 340). 

Several states tried to hold them in check through railroad 
commissions, beginning in 1869. These commissions soon 
found that they could affect only the movement of " intra- 
state traffic"; that is, of business which started and came to 
its destination within the boundaries of a single state. The 
moment a passenger or shipment was carried across a state 
boundary it became "interstate" commerce, which by the 
federal Constitution was handed over to the sole control of 
the United States government. Hence a strong and growing 
pressure was exerted upon Congress, to create a national 



438 DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS 

commission to regulate the interstate commerce which was 
more than four fifths of the whole railroad business. 

After several years of discussion in Congress, the Interstate 
Commerce Act was passed in 1887. It was a complicated law, 
but the spirit of it was that the railroads must make equal 
rates to all users, must not charge more for a short haul 
(§ 344) than for a longer haul over the same line, must post 
printed rates, and must keep accounts in a form directed by 
the Commission. An Interstate Commerce Commission was 
provided to apply the law. 

This bill was very important, for it created a means of 
controlling the railroads, no matter how rich and influential. 
Some time passed before the railroads could really believe that 
the Commission was in earnest; but when they disputed its 
decisions, Congress came forward and made the law stronger. 
For example, the railroads had to adopt safety couplings and 
other life-saving devices, and were forbidden to grant passes 
to interstate passengers. 

Some of them tried to get around the law by charging equal 
rates and then paying to favored shippers a " rebate " ; that is, 
a secret deduction on the freight bill. That practice also had 
to be forbidden. In course of time the Pullman Car Company 
and the express companies were brought under the rules of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, which reduced their rates 
(1910). 

The railroads discovered that the control of the Commission 
took away many drawbacks in their business, such as the 
pressure for free passes and special rates. They then sought 
to aid in the enforcement of the laws. 

352. American Neighbors. — For years, the United States 
had been at peace with all European countries. Nevertheless 
things had not been going smoothly with some American 
nations; for the Latin American states (§ 192) did not justify 
the hope that they would become peaceful republics like the 
United States. 

Mexico in particular went through about fifty years of dis- 
order and civil war, one revolution after another. During 
our Civil War the French tried to seize the country; but the 



AMERICAN NEIGHBORS 



439 




United States, following 
the policy of the Mon- 
roe Doctrine (§ 193), 
made it clear that 
Mexico must not be a 
French colony, and the 
French troops hurriedly 
left (1867). Aftersome 
years Porfirio Diaz be- 
came the head of the 
state; he enlisted a 
strong army and for 
about thirty years kept 
Mexico in order (1878— 
191 1). He induced 
Americans to build rail- 
roads connecting with 
the United States and 
to invest money in 
mines and ranches. 

The United States came into close relations with the inde- 
pendent little kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific. 
In 1893 Hawaiian citizens of American blood brought about 
a revolution, set up a republic, and asked the United States 
to annex the islands. President Cleveland refused because he 
thought that American ships and marines had had too much 
to do with the revolution. Five years later, however (1898), 
Congress passed an act for annexing the Hawaiian Republic, 
which became a regular territory of the United States. 

Besides Mexico, there were three well-governed Latin- 
American countries which later were called the " A. B. C. 
powers": (i) The old La Plata colonies, now called Argen- 
tina; (2) Brazil, which became a federal republic in 1889; (3) 
Chile, on the west coast. Most of the other Latin American 
countries were weak and cursed with revolutions. Any ad- 
venturer who could raise a band of armed men and capture 
the capital might make himself president or dictator till he 
was put out of office or killed by another dictator. 



Coconut palms in the Hawaiian Islands 



440 DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS 

In the weaker South American countries, trouble constantly 
arose because Americans doing business there were liable to 
plunder and personal abuse. Year after year these govern- 
ments agreed to arbitrations or treaties or promises to pay 
money which was not paid, till the patience of the United 
States was severely tried. James G. Blaine, as Secretary of 
State under President Arthur (1881) and also under President 
Harrison (1889), tried hard to put an end to their differences. 
A Pan-American Congress was called at Washington, to which 
most of the Latin American powers sent delegates (1890), and 
Blaine did his best to induce them to stop their wars against 
one another. 

The old-fashioned Monroe Doctrine had not been called 
into play for a long time, when Venezuela and Great Britain fell 
into discussion about the boundary of the little English col- 
ony of Guiana. In 1895 Richard Olney, then Secretary of 
State, maintained that the Monroe Doctrine forbade Euro- 
pean powers to take disputed territory from any American 
state and notified the British government that it must give 
up or arbitrate. President Cleveland in a public message 
indicated that the United States would fight if necessary in 
defense of this principle. The British government was sur- 
prised to discover that the American people supported the 
President in his view and it hastened to agree to an arbitra- 
tion. It then proved that the British claim to territory had 
been a reasonable one. From that time, however, the Eng- 
lish were aroused to a sense of the importance of keeping on 
good terms with the United States. 

353. Free Silver in the Election of 1896. — In 1893, the 
year before the Wilson tariff was passed, another commercial 
panic came on, which was thought to be caused by the fear of 
the people that they would be obliged to take silver instead of 
gold for their greenbacks. Congress under very strong pres- 
sure from President Cleveland stopped the purchase of silver 
(1893). The free-silver men throughout the country looked 
upon this action as a trick of the goldbugs (§321) and felt sure 
that if only the government would again allow free coinage of 
silver, the market price would surely rise. 



ELECTION OF 1896 



441 



Since President Cleveland was clearly in favor of using gold 
as the only standard, the Democratic party refused to follow 
him. In their nominating convention of 1896, William J. 
Bryan of Nebraska was put forward as the champion of the 
silver men, and though he was hardly known in the East he 
was nominated for the presidency with great enthusiasm. 
The Republicans nominated William McKinley, and their 
convention declared that their party was in favor of the gold 
standard. After a spirited contest, 
McKinley was elected. 

If, as Mr. Bryan thought, there was 
not enough gold in the world to serve 
as standard for the world's business, the 
time had come to dig more gold. In 
1896 placer gold was discovered in the 
Klondike River, which was one of the 
upper waters of the great Yukon, and 
another strike was made at Cape Nome 
in Alaska. There was a rush of miners, 
and so much gold came from Alaska and 
from new mines elsewhere that gold be- 
gan to go down in value, or silver began 
to come up — nobody knows which. In 
1900 Congress adopted the gold stan- 
dard (§§ 32 1 , 322) . Within a few years, 
the country began to complain that 
there was too much gold ; for the more 
gold there was, the higher the cost of 
living rose. 

354. Summary. — This chapter takes 
up the political and party questions of 
the two Democratic administrations of 
Grover Cleveland and the midway Re- 
publican administration of Benjamin 
Harrison. 

President Cleveland came into power in 1885 with little 
previous experience, but showed himself a leader. In the two 
years 1889 and 1890, six northwestern states were added to 




Totem pole of Alaskan Indians, 
now in Seattle, Washington 



442 DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS 

the Union. The tariff question, which had been raised by the 
tariff of 1883, divided the two parties. The RepubHcans got 
control and passed the McKinley tariff of 1890. Various new 
arguments for and against the tariff were launched. Cleve- 
land and a Democratic Congress were elected in 1892 and 
passed the Wilson tariff of 1894. 

After long discussion, the Interstate Commerce Act was 
passed in 1887, by which the railroads were much restricted 
and a commission was appointed to supervise them. 

The Latin American countries gave some trouble through 
their revolutions and injuries to the persons and property of 
Americans. A Pan-American Congress was held, and Presi- 
dent Cleveland applied the Monroe Doctrine against action 
by Great Britain thought unfriendly to Venezuela. 

The free-silver contest arose again in the election of 1896, 
but Bryan, the Democratic candidate, was defeated, and the 
discovery of gold in Alaska and elsewhere helped to put an end 
to the problem. In 1900 gold was made the money standard 
of the United States, 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Dewey, National Problems. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 203. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 709-781. — Beard, Contemporary 
Hist., 41-46, 100-142, 164-198. — Coman, Industrial Hist., 313-341. — 
Dewey, National Problems. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., 464-482. — 
Hart, Monroe Doctrine, ch. xii. — Haworth, Reconstruction and Union, 
ch. vi. — Paxson, New Nation, 132-187, 208-256. — Wilson, Division 
and Reunion, §§ 149-150, 152-156. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, no. 6. — Hart, Contemporaries, IV. 
§§164-167, 170-173, 178, 179. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos, 
180-183; Select Statutes, nos. 1 10-126. 

Side Lights and Stories. Atherton, Senator North. — Cullom, Fifty 
Years. — Foraker, Busy Life. — Ford, Honorable Peter Stirling. — Hoar, 
Autobiography. — Payne, Mr. Salt. 

Pictures. Andrews, Last Quarter Century. — Century. — Harper's 
Monthly. — Harper's Weekly. — Scribner's. — Wilson, Am. People, V. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 346) I. Why did some people distrust President Cleveland? 2. 
What kind of man was he? 3 (For an essay). President Cleveland's life 
in the White House. 4. How did he treat the civil service? 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 443 

(§ 347) 5- What new states came into the Union in 1 889-1 890? 6. 
How did their admission affect the silver question? 

(§ 348) 7- How did the tariff affect the income of the government? 8. 
What was the tariff of 1883? 9. How did the election of 1888 come out? 

(§349) 10. How has the tariff developed since 1816? 11. How did the 
farmers look on the tariff? 12. How did the geographical sections divide 
on the tariff? 13. What were the principal arguments for a protective 
tariff? 14. What were the arguments against it? 15. How did Congress 
dispose of the surplus revenue? " 

(§ 350) 16. What was the McKinley tariff? 17. What was the Popu- 
list party? 18. How did the election of 1892 come out? 19. What was 
the Wilson tariff? 20. What was the Dingley tariff? 

(§351) 21. How did the states try to regulate the railroads? 22. What 
is interstate commerce? 23. What is the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion? 24. How was the Interstate Commerce Act enlarged? 25. What 
efforts were made to evade the act? 

(§ 352) 26. How did the Latin American states carry on their affairs? 
27 (For an essay). A trip to Mexico or Central America or the Hawaiian 
Islands. 28. How was Mexico governed? 29. How was the Hawaiian 
Republic formed? 30. What were the "A. B. C. powers"? 31. What 
troubles arose in Latin America? 32 (For an essay). A Latin American 
revolution. 33. What was the purpose of the Pan-American Congress of 
1890? 34. What was the quarrel between Venezuela and Great Britain? 
35. How did the United States settle it? 36 (For an essay). A visit to 
South America. 

(§ 353) 37- What was the result of stopping the purchase of silver? 
38. How did the election of 1896 come out? 39. How was the gold supply 
enlarged? 40 (For an essay). Experience of a gold miner in Alaska. 



UMTED STATES 

AND ITS 

POSSESSIONS 

SnOWIN'G 

STEAMSHIP AND CABLE 
COMMUNICATIONS 

Hailroads 




Longiiude 



Lontritude 



444 




445 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



THE SPANISH WAR AND ITS RESULTS (18971907) 

355. President McKinley. — Business was good after 1896. 
The bitter quarrels about free silver died down, and Mc- 
Kinley's genial character made him a strong and popular 
President. No one else in his time knew so well how to smooth 

out difficulties in Con- 
gress, and ev^en his po- 
litical enemies admired 
him. His warmest 
personal friend was 
Senator Mark Hanna of 
Ohio, who had brought 
about McKinle\''s nom- 
ination, but who did not 
attempt to control the 
policy of the President. 
The strongest member 
of the Cabinet was 
John Hay, formerly 
private secretary to 
Abraham Lincoln. As 
McKinley's Secretary 
of State, he was very 
successful in smooth- 
ing out troubles in our 
relations with other 
countries. 

356. Cuba (1895-1898). — It will be remembered that Cuba 
was'upset by a civil war from 1868 to 1878 (§ 318). Similar 
trouble broke out in 1895, when a revolution was set on foot by 
a group of educated and able people, aided by funds supplied 

446 




William McKinley, 1843-1901 



CUBA 447 

by Cubans living in the United States, and supported by white 
people and freed slaves. They set up what was called a 
" Cuban Republic," though it was without a capital, an 
organized government, or a real army. 

The United States was stirred up by this revolution; first, 
because it disturbed the heavy trade between the mainland and 
Cuba, especially in sugar; second, because Cuba lay only a 
hundred miles from the southern end of Florida, and many 
Americans wanted to annex it. 

The Spanish government sent over about a hundred thou- 
sand soldiers, and both sides raided and burned the towns and 
plantations and sugar-cane fields. The Spanish governor, 
General Weyler, issued an order for "reconcentration"; that is, 
he compelled the country people to come in off their farms and 
stay inside the Spanish lines. When thus taken away from 
their homes they had not sufficient food and many of these 
poor people died of hunger. 

Most of the Americans felt a sympathy for the Cubans, who 
seemed to be doing what had been done by the Revolutionary 
patriots of 1775; and more than twenty little " filibustering " 
expeditions were fitted out to carry men and military supplies 
to their assistance. President Cleveland did what he could 
to keep this country neutral by stopping the filibusters; but 
Spain took great offense, and some American newspaper cor- 
respondents and others who went to Cuba were arrested. 

357. Outbreak of the Spanish War (1898). — President 
McKinley asked the Spanish government to give the Cubans 
"autonomy"; that is, the right to govern themselves in local 
matters. In February, 1898, the American battleship Maine, 
which was lying in the harbor of Havana, was blown up by a 
torpedo or mine from the outside. Though we now feel sure 
that the Spanish government neither desired nor supported 
such an act, it aroused a hostile feeling in the United States. 

The home government of Spain offered to do almost any- 
thing to prevent war, but President McKinley and his ad- 
visers decided that this country must put an end to the 
Spanish control over Cuba. Hence, at his recommendation 
Congress voted (April 20, 1898) that the American army and 



448 



THE SPANISH WAR AND ITS RESULTS 



navy should turn the Spaniards out. Included in the resolu- 
tion was the so-called "Teller Resolution," in which Congress 
promised that the island should be given back to its own 
people. Spain accepted the resolution as a declaration of 
war. 

358. Course of the Spanish War (1898). — The first fighting 
was in the far-off Philippine Islands (§ 14). Commodore (later 
Admiral) Dewey was sent with a squadron of steel armored 
ships to Manila Bay, and found a weak Spanish fleet lying off 
the arsenal of Cavite. In a fight of a few hours (May i, 1898) 
the Spanish fleet was destroyed. 

A second fleet under Admiral Cervera crossed the ocean 
from Spain and put into the Cuban harbor of Santiago. A 

few weeks later a little American 
army of about 17,000 men under 
the command of General Shafter 
landed near Santiago. His force 
moved overland and fought the only 
land battles of the Cuban war, at 
El Caney and San Juan Hill. The 
total loss to the Americans was only 
1500. Cervera's ships made a dash 
to the sea but were caught in a running fight by Admiral 
Sampson's fleet, and not a Spanish vessel escaped. Santiago 
then surrendered. An army sent out under General Miles 
occupied the island of Porto Rico, almost without firing a shot. 
A month later the city of Manila surrendered to troops sent 
out from the Pacific coast. Thus the Spaniards were defeated 
in every fight by land or sea. 

359. How the War was Carried On (1898). — After war was 
declared, the American people learned that they were not pre- 
pared for even so small a contest. The American navy was in 
good shape and well drilled. But the American land forces 
before the war were only about 26,000 in all, and were so 
scattered that hardly one full regiment could be brought 
together. Just as in the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the 
Mexican War, the government depended on state militia. A 
few states had well-drilled regiments; from other states, men 




SCALE OF MILES 



Santiago de Cuba and vicinity 



EVENTS OF THE WAR 



449 




Charge of American troops at El Caney 

came Into service with no guns or iiniforms and no trained 
officers. 

About 250,000 men were soon under arms, but some of them 
were camped in unheal thful places and drank bad water; thou- 
sands were stricken down with typhoid fever and other diseases 
which might have been prevented. The confusion and excite- 
ment were such that men were sent to Cuba on one ship, their 
horses on another, and their field guns on another. After the 
war, Elihu Root of New York became Secretary of War, and 
showed great ability in reorganizing the army. 

Men and officers were brave and willing, but it was a cruel 
hardship to die of disease in the camps without ever seeing an 
enemy. Among the volunteers public attention was especially 
directed to the Rough Riders, a regiment of cavalry raised by 
Leonard Wood, who had been an army surgeon, and Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, who had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 
That part of the regiment which went to Cuba under the 
command of Roosevelt fought well in the confused battle of 
San Juan. 



450 THE SPANISH WAR AND ITS RESULTS 

The total death loss of the United States army was about 
3000 killed and died of disease; but 250,000 men were added 
to those who would sometime ask for pensions. The money 
cost of the war was about 165 millions. 

360. Disposition of Cuba and Porto Rico (1898-1909). — 
After three months' hopeless struggle the Spanish government 
asked for peace. Hostilities ended in August, and four months 
later a treaty was signed in Paris by which Spain gave up Cuba 
and Porto Rico in the West Indies, and the Philippines and the 
island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The United States paid 
Spain 20 million dollars, which was intended to be a kind of 
purchase money for the Philippines. 

This treaty left the United States free to deal with Cuba 
according to its judgment, and the promise made by the Teller 
Resolution (§ 357) that Cuba should not be annexed, was 
honorably kept for the new republic. A small American army 
remained in the island until a permanent Cuban government 
could be formed. In 1902, the army was withdrawn and the 
Cubans were left with a government of their own. 

In fact, Cuba remained under the protection of the United 
States, for the new republic was obliged to accept the so-called 
" Piatt Amendment" (1901), which was an act of Congress 
providing that Cuba must grant the United States some sites 
for naval stations, and must agree not to enter into any rela- 
tions with foreign countries which might interfere with Cuban 
independence or which were opposed to the wishes of the 
United States. 

The United States also reserved the right to send troops back 
to Cuba if the native government could not keep order; and 
when a revolution seemed likely in 1906 troops were sent there 
and remained three years. One of the advantages of these 
two occupations was that the officers and soldiers of the Ameri- 
can army set up schools, cleaned the cities, and discovered that 
yellow fever was carried by a mosquito and could be stamped 
out by keeping the mosquito away from yellow-fever patients. 

It was thought best to end the Spanish rule in America 
altogether, and therefore the island of Porto Rico was annexed 
outright. It was a rich island with a mixed white and negro 



NEW DEPENDENCIES 45 1 

population of about i ,000,000. Congress set up a government 
there which was controlled by officers appointed from Wash- 
ington. On the other hand, the island received the great 
advantage that goods passing between the states and Porto 
Rico in either direction were free from customs duties. 

361. The Philippine Islands (1898-1908). — When the war 
began nobody expected that it would bring to the United 
States a large number of islands in the Pacific. In the course 
of the war the Hawaiian Islands (§ 352) were annexed; and the 
little island of Tutuila in the Samoan group was acquired by 
treaty in 1900. Guam was taken from Spain because it was 
a convenient naval station on the route across the Pacific 
Ocean. 

By the acquisition of the Philippine Islands, the United 
States received more than 3000 separate islands with an area 
of nearly 115,000 square miles, which is about the area of the 
states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Mary- 
land. The population included about 1,000,000 uncivilized 
people, and 7^000,000 Christians of the Malay race, subdi- 
vided into groups of tribes, each speaking its own language. 

The Filipinos for some time had been trying to set up an 
independent government under the leadership of Aguinaldo. 
Therefore, it seemed unkind for the United States to turn 
them back to the Spaniards. Several European powers had 
colonies on the eastern and southern coasts of Asia, and it 
seemed a fine thing that the United States should also have a 
foothold in that part of the world. The Philippine Islands 
were supposed to be rich and offered an opportunity to invest 
American capital. 

President McKinley finally decided to take the islands; 
but the natives, who had organized an army to drive out the 
Spaniards, turned against the Americans. For two years they 
carried on what they considered a patriotic war of defense 
against the invaders; the United States considered it an armed 
insurrection and subdued it. 

After a hard fight the Filipinos had to give in and Congress 
then set up for them an " insular government " in which the 
main features were a governor-general and a commission of 



452 



THE SP.\NISH WAR AND ITS RESULTS 



nine members, appointed by the President. In 1907 Congress 
set up an "insular legislature." Since the Filipinos were gov- 
erned against their will by the United States, it seemed fair 
that they should be allowed to trade freely, without paying any 
duty in our customhouses. Accordingly in 1909 Congress 
allowed Philippine products to come into the United States 
free of duty. 

President Mclvinley's course in favoring war, in conquering 

the Philippine Is- 
lands, and in hold- 
ing them, was not 
accepted by all the 
American people. 
The "Anti-Imperi- 
alists" tried to pre- 
vent the Senate 
from ratifying the 
treaty of peace, and 
criticized the policy 
of trying to plant 
colonics in tropical 
and far distant re- 
gions. Neverthe- 
less the people 
seemed to approve 
of McKinlcy's pol- 
icy, for in 1900 he 
was easily elected 
President a second 
time over Bryan. 
He was a man who 
sincerely desired that his country should be both strong and 
just; and he was advancing in a great career when he was shot 
Ly an obscure and worthless man (September, 1901). 

362. President Roosevelt (1901-1909). — By the death of 
President McKinley, the Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, 
was brought to the White House. The new President was a 
remarkably active man, who had served in the New York 



^^^^^^^^F^^vl^^^^H 








^^^^^^^^^^kfl^^^^^^^^^^^^H 





Theodore Roosevelt 



THE PANAMA CANAL 453 

legislature, had been head of the national Civil Service Com- 
mission, Police Commissioner of New York, and a soldier in 
the Spanish War. His career brought him so sharply before 
the public that he was elected governor of the state of New 
York (1898). Thomas C. Piatt, the Republican boss of that 
state, arranged to force upon Roosevelt the nomination as 
Vice President to get him out of state politics and in an office 
where he would have little influe-nce. The unexpected result 
was that he became President. 

Roosevelt was by nature inclined to strike out for himself. 
He had been brought up among eastern moneyed men and 
understood their way of thinking; he had also lived much in 
the far West and knew the needs of the people there. He 
was very direct and positive, and liked to see things done. 

Such a man had a great opportunity, because after the 
Spanish War the American people began to look upon them- 
selves as a " world power " which must take new responsibili- 
ties in America and in Asia. Hence a great public interest 
arose when (1900) the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China, 
and the foreign diplomats and their families were shut up in 
Peking. A small American force joined other forces from 
European countries and Japan in the rescue of the beleaguered 
men and women. The other powers wanted to take territory 
from China, but Secretary Hay laid down what he called the 
"open-door" policy; that is, every part of China must be 
equally open to the trade of every foreign country. 

363. The Panama Canal (1899-1904). — Another evidence 
that the United States had become a world power was the 
taking over of the Panama Canal as a national public work. 
The French canal company (§ 343), after spending hundreds 
of millions of dollars, was obliged to give up; the employees 
died from malaria and yellow fever, and the money gave out. 
Some American capitalists attempted to construct a rival canal 
across the Nicaragua route. In 1900 a skilled and thorough 
commission of engineers reported to the United States govern- 
ment that it had better use the Nicaragua route, because the 
French company was still in possession of the Panama route 
and was asking too large a sum for it. 



454 



THE SPANISH WAR AND ITS RESULTS 



When President Roosevelt came into office (1901) he went 
to work systematically to clear the way for the canal. First, 
John Hay secured from Great Britain a treaty giving up any 
claim which that power might have in the canal. Then the 

republic of Colombia, 
within whose territory 
the French canal lay, 
offered to make a treaty 
which would enable the 
United States to build 
the canal (1902); but 
after it was accepted at 
Washington the Colom- 
bian Congress would 
not ratify it. A few 
weeks later the people 
of Panama revolted and 
set up a separate gov- 
ernment. President 
Roosevelt at once seized 
the opportunity, recog- 
nized and protected the new republic, and made a treaty with 
it (1903) by which the United States practically annexed a 
"canal zone" ten miles wide across the Isthmus (map, pages 
8-9). The French company accepted $40,000,000 cash for its 
interests and the building of the canal was soon under way. 

364. The Monroe Doctrine (1902-1904). — The Colom- 
bians insisted that the United States had made a plot to take 
away their isthmus, and for years remained resentful. Other 
Latin American powers felt unfriendly towards the United 
States, partly because the American tariff interfered with their 
trade, but chiefly because they thought the Monroe Doctrine 
(§ 193) claimed authority over them. The doctrine was really 
intended for the protection of the weaker states. For example, 
when Germany was supposed to be looking for a place to plant 
colonies, and had difficulty with Venezuela (1902), President 
Roosevelt insisted that no territory should be occupied in 
America by any European power. 




American steam shovel at work on the Panama Canal 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE 455 

A new difficulty now appeared in applying the Monroe 
Doctrine. If foreign countries could not occupy territory, 
how were they to collect the claims that were always arising 
in those poorly governed countries? To meet this point the 
"Drago Doctrine" was suggested by an Argentine states- 
man, to the effect that armies and navies should never be used 
to collect the claims on debts and contracts. 

If the Drago Doctrine was reasonable, what should be done 
if in Latin America foreign citizens were killed or their property 
was seized? Who could compel those powers to behave, if not 
the United States? To take that responsibility would make 
our government a kind of policeman for other neighboring 
American powers. President Roosevelt accepted that re- 
sponsibility for Santo Domingo by making a treaty (with the 
consent of the Senate) whereby a financial officer was put in 
charge of the treasury there with instructions to see that the 
foreign debts were paid (1907). 

President Roosevelt's policies seemed to be popular with 
the voters. When the election of 1904 came around, the 
Democrats nominated Judge Alton B. Parker of New York, but 
he did not carry a single northern state. The Republicans 
nominated Roosevelt, who received a plurality of 2,500,000 
votes. 

365. Summary. — This chapter recounts the great change 
that came over the United States through a war with Spain in 
1898, and the annexation of islands in the West Indies and the 
Pacific Ocean. 

President McKinley proved to be a strong and popular 
President. He found the Cubans in a state of insurrection 
against Spain, and the American people strongly sympathized. 
The blowing up of the battleship Maine, and the feeling that 
the Spaniards would never govern Cuba justly, caused Congress 
to declare war on Spain in 1898. There were two naval fights, 
one in Manila Bay and one outside the Cuban harbor of Santi- 
ago. The only serious land fighting was the battle of San 
Juan near Santiago, and the siege of Manila in the Philippine 
Islands. The Spaniards were demoralized and gave up the 
fight. 

hart's sch. hist. — 26 



456 



THE SPANISH WAR AND ITS RESULTS 




A country school in Porto Rico 



(c) Newman Traveltalks 



The United States was able to send only 17,000 troops to 
Cuba, and most of the losses of the war were from disease. 
The state militia was not in good condition and the War 
Department was not able to handle the war properly. 

Spain ceded to the United States, Porto Rico, Guam, and 
the Philippine Islands; and Cuba was turned over to its own 
people. A government was provided for Porto Rico with 
liberal privileges of trade. The Filipinos for two years re- 
sisted the Americans, and then received a government wiiich 
was mostly outside of their control, but later they were allowed 
free trade with the United States. 

By the death of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt 
became President and was active in pushing the interests of the 
American people in all parts of the world. He broke through 
the opposition of the French canal company and of Colombia, 
and thus prepared the way for a Panama Canal. He also 
made a new statement of the Monroe Doctrine, according to 
which the United States was to take the responsibility for 
keeping order in the Latin American states in order to pre- 
vent foreign invasion. 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 457 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Wall Maps, nos. 23, 24. — Latane, Am. as a World Power. 
— Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, no. 32. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 216. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, chs. xxxvii, xxxix. — Beard, Con- 
temporary Hist., 199-228, 275-282. — Fish, Dev. of Am. Nation., ch. 
xxvii. — • Paxson, New Nation. — Wilson, Div. and Reunion, §§ 157-166. 

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, no. 34. — Hart, Contemporaries, IV. 180- 
196; Source Book, §§ 140-144. — Hill, Liberty Docs., ch. xxiv. — James, 
Readings, §§ 99-102. — MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 184-187. 

Side Lights and Stories. Brooks, War with Spain. —- Collingwood, 
Cruise of the " Thetis " (Cuban insurrection). — Dillon, The Leader 
(Politics). — Kvans, Sailor' s Log, chs. xxxiv, xxxix. — Forbes, Philip- 
pines under Am. Rules. — Gordy, Arn. Leaders and Heroes, ch. xxvi. — - 
King, Captured (Philippines). — Scollard, Ballads of Am. Bravery, 138- 
157. — Wallington, Am. Hist, by Am. Poets, H. 328-368. 

Pictures. Harper's Pictorial Hist, of the War with Spain. — Harper's 
Weekly. — Leslie's Official Hist, of the Span.- Am. War'. — Mentor, serial 
nos. 15, 89. — Scientific American. — Wilson, Am. People, V. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 355) I- What kind of President was McKinley? 

(§356) 2. What was the "Cuban Republic"? 3. Why was the United 
States interested in Cuba? 4. Howdid the Spanish War proceed? 5 (For 
an essay). The Spanish War. 6. What was "filibustering"? 

(§ 357) 7- How was the Maine destroyed? 8. Why did Congress vote 
for war with Spain? 9. What was the Teller Resolution? 

(§358) 10. How did the war affect the Philippines? 11. What hap- 
pened in Cuba? 12 (For an essay). The message to Garcia. 13. What 
was the general result of the war? 

(§ 359) 1 4- How was the American army raised? 15 (For an essay). 
The Rough Riders. 16. How was the army taken care ol? 

(§360) 17. What territory did the United States annex? 18. How was 
Cuba treated? 19. What was the Piatt Amendment? 20. How was 
Porto Rico treated? 

(§361) 21. What did the country gain in the Pacific? 22. Why were 
the Philippines annexed? 23. How were the Filipinos governed? 

(§ 362) 24. How did Roosevelt become President? 25. What kind of 
President was he? 26. What was the Boxer Rebellion? the "open door"? 
27 (For an essay). A visit to China. 

(§ 363) 28. What efforts were made to construct an Isthmus canal? 
29. How did the United States proceed in building the canal? 30. How 
was the title to the Panama Canal acquired? 

(§ 364) 31. What is the Monroe Doctrine? 32. What is the Drago 
Doctrine? 33. What was Roosevelt's policy toward other American 
countries? 34. How did the election of 1904 come out? 




In a steel mill— rolling plates 



CHAPTER XXXIV 



BIG BUSINESS (1890-1916) 

366. Big Advantages for Business. — While Congress and 
the President were making laws and carrying on war and 
dealing with foreign nations, the people of the United States 
were growing every year more numerous, rich, and powerful. 
For this prosperity several reasons may be mentioned : 

(i) The people were constantly gathering in the gifts of 
nature. They were 
using more and 
more of the big 
trees, the deposits 
of ore and coal, the 
oil and gas found 
deep underground, 
the fish of the sea, 
the rich farming 
soil. Never had 
the country known 
such a production 
of timber, minerals, 
and crops. 

(2) This use of 
the wealth of 
nature was possible 
because the United 
States was an industrious country. The strong and hard- 
working people, whether native or foreign-born, accomplished 
more in a year than any like number of people elsewhere in 
the world. They made much use of machinery, so that a 
given number of workers on the farms, in the shops and fac- 
tories, or down in the mines could produce large amounts in 
proportion to their numbers. 

459 




Machine for transferring ore from boats to freight cars, at 
one of the ports on Lake Erie 



460 



BIG -BUSINESS 





Wright aeroplane in igo8 



(3) The United States had good railroads and waterways, 
so that the products of each section could easily reach the 
markets of the country and of the world. 

367. Progress of Invention (1890-1916). — The United 
States was the most inventive country in the world. The 
gasoline engine v.'as perfected about 1900, 
and its use rapidly spread over the world. 
It furnished great power with a small 
weight of machinery and was especially 
.. used for automo- 



biles, motor 
cycles, power 
launches, and 
aeroplanes. Wire- 
less telegraphy, 
invented by an 
Italian, was 
quickly perfected 
and widely used. Typesetting machines, fast presses, and 
quick photography made it possible to issue cheap illustrated 
daily newspapers. Cheap cameras that took instantaneous 
pictures were sold by hundreds of thousands, and the great 
invention of moving pictures 
made a new amusement for 
millions of people. 

The transportation of pas- 
sengers on streets and roads 
in the United States was 
greatly improved in this 
period ; practically all of the 
surface street cars in the whole country and some regular rail- 
road trains were moved by electric power, and both electric 
motors and gasoline engines came into use for carriages and 
trucks. The more cars, the worse the crowding in the streets; 
so in 1894 Boston began to build "subways"; that is, tunnels 
under the streets. By 1916 such subways were built or build- 
ing in various cities, especially New York, Philadelphia, and 
Chicago, to a combined length of 1 10 miles. 




Early type of automobile 



TRANSPORTATION 46 1 

Automobiles made a great change in street and road travel. 
The whole country abounded in automobile busses, automo- 
bile stages, automobile sight-seeing cars, automobile trucks, 
and hundreds of thousands of private cars. Surveyors, 
doctors, manufacturers, traveling salesmen, and many other 
business men found that the automobile enabled them to do 
twice as much work as before. 



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Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouii 

368. Good Roads. — The United States was far behind 
European countries in its streets and roads. In many cities, 
the ordinary pavements were made of rough cobblestones. 
Since wood was very cheap, a system of wood pavements 
came into use which made a beautiful and smooth roadway. 
The next improvement was the asphalt pavement made of a 
thick tarry material imported from Trinidad. In the open 
country the situation was bad because most of the old pikes 
and plank roads (§ 229) had worn out and had not been re- 
newed. In rich states like Illinois, roads were so poor in rainy 
weather that sometimes for weeks together farmers could not 
get to the nearby railroad towns to ship their produce. There 
and in other states came an era of macadam roads or brick 
pavements on many country highways. 

The automobiles helped to solve the road problem because 
they depended on a reasonably hard and even roadway. The 
result was that city people, farmers, and other users of the 



462 



BIG BUSINESS 



roads combined to demand something better, and started the 
" good roads " movement, which became especially strong after 




Dirt road before improvement 



Good country road 



1905. Many states, both east and west, appropriated large 
sums out of the public treasury — $50,000,000 at one time in 
New York — to build good roads; and the counties and towns 
also spent money freely. Americans for the first time learned 
the lesson that good roads, by making heavier loads possible, 
are worth more than they cost. 

369. Advantages for the People. — Great improvements 
were made in the daily life of the people. The state universi- 
ties undertook to aid the farmers to raise better cattle, to take 
better care of milk, to make better butter and cheese, to select 
the seed for their crops, and to use proper fertilizers. All these 
things increased the products of the farms. The technical 
schools helped the engineers and manufacturers to find better 
and cheaper materials and to prevent waste in the factories. 
The public schools joined in teaching children how to help in 
the family work; for instance, in some states there were con- 
tests among children to see who could bake the best bread, or 
who could grow the most corn on a given area of land. 

One of the greatest improvements was in the health of the 
people. Efforts were made to clean up the city slums in 
which there was much disease. Vaccination was so much ex- 
tended that smallpox disappeared from most cities. " Serums" 
were discovered which acted in much the same way as vaccina- 
tion against such dreaded diseases as diphtheria, typhoid fever, 
and lockjaw. A great boon to mankind was the discovery of 



BUSINESS MEN 463 

" antiseptic surgery," by which injured persons could often 
be saved and operations could be performed that would not 
otherwise have been possible. 

Of course many of these advantages were shared by foreign 
nations and some of the inventions mentioned above (§367) 
came from foreign countries; but the Americans could make 
better use of them because they were quick, because they had 
a good system of education, and because they were accustomed 
to take care of themselves and rely on themselves. 

370. Big Business Men. — In the early history of the 
United States, the men who were the leaders in public life 
were statesmen, occupying the high offices of the nation, the 
states, and the cities. Alongside them were men and women 
poets, orators, gifted preachers, novelists, and historians. 
Their renown was shared by explorers and men of adventure, 
arctic voyagers, and world travelers. 

Later, as one of the effects of the improvements in industry, 
public attention was attracted also to highly successful busi- 
ness men who wrote little, made no speeches, hardly appeared 
in public, and seldom sought any office; but who affected 
the daily life of millions of their fellow countrymen and who 
were a great power in the development of the whole country. 
The first men of that type to become national figures were 
John Jacob Astor (§ 157) of New York and Stephen Girard 
(§227) of Philadelphia, both of whom left great fortunes. 

After the Civil War, a most striking business figure was 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, who reorganized the New York Central 
Railroad and greatly reduced the cost of railroad transpor- 
tation (§340). Several other great fortunes were made by 
railroad kings, particularly by James J. Hill of Minnesota, 
builder of the Great Northern Railroad to the Pacific coast. 
A large part of the wealth of these and other successful busi- 
ness men was invested in the stocks and bonds of railroads 
and other great corporations. Small investors also made use 
of this method, because they could put a few hundred or a 
few thousand dollars into corporations which were managed 
by the ablest business men. Such great corporations could 
employ the best engineers, lawyers, and scientific experts, and 



464 BIG BUSINESS 

put large sums into buying up timberlands, water-power sites, 
coal or ore land, mines, and building sites. The same method 
was applied in all the cities to great department stores and 
mail-order houses, which did business on an immense scale. 

Smaller business men, firms, and corporations often felt the 
pressure of these large enterprises, and protested against what 
they called the " trusts." The result was a tide of feeling 
against the railroads which were joining into larger and larger 
systems, and also against large corporations of any kind. 

Nevertheless, there was a constant tendency for small 
corporations to roll into larger ones, and for larger ones to 
join into still bigger concerns. The small Atlantic steamship 
lines were combined into great companies, some of which 
owned hundreds of vessels and built ships of 50,000 tons 
burden. Companies which carried on the business of supply- 
ing the everyday necessities of life were combined and enlarged 
into more powerful units. 

All over the world there was the same tendency. Great 
oil companies were formed by the Germans and the Russians, 
great iron companies by the English. Some such combi- 
nations, as, for instance, that of the copper trade, included 
both foreign and American producers. 

371. Monopolies and Trusts. — It was natural that, as 
the country grew larger and business increased, there should 
be larger corporations, some of which were big enough to con- 
trol a considerable part of some one line of business. Such 
corporations were accused of trying to create "monopolies" 
in their lines of business, so that small concerns could not 
compete with them. Attacks on the big corporations, com- 
monly called " trusts," were carried into the state legislatures; 
and many laws were passed by the states to prevent the big 
concerns from taking advantage of smaller concerns. At the 
same time, efforts were made to regulate the great railroads, 
which were the largest, richest, and most powerful corpora- 
tions in the country. 

But, because of differences in state laws, there was difficulty 
in regulating railroads, manufacturing concerns, or other 
kinds of corporations doing an interstate business. Further- 



MONOPOLIES AND TRUSTS 465 

more, when goods are carried from one state to another, the 
business comes under the control of the United States Con- 
gress; hence, this so-called " Antitrust " war was carried 
over into Congress. Several national laws were passed, of 
which the most important was the " Sherman Antitrust 
Act " of 1890. This was intended to prevent monopolies 
in such trade or commerce as was carried on from one state 
to another. The corporation could be kept in check by 
regulating that part of its business which extended from one 
state into another. 



T 



1 '1 fl^c^1.«^^J.^afe 




Modem Mallet articulated locomotive 

Once started in this idea. Congress proceeded to regulate 
the business of putting up salted or canned meats (1906); 
and in the same year passed a national " Pure Food and 
Drugs Act." In 1909 a tax was laid on corporations, large 
and small; in 19 14 the " Clayton Act " against trusts was 
passed. Congress (1914) provided for a " Federal Trade 
Commission," which was to act toward ordinary corporations 
much as the Interstate Commerce Commission (§351) acted 
toward the railroads. A " Child Labor Act," passed in 1916, 
forbade the carrying of goods from state to state, if made by 
child labor under forbidden conditions. 

372. Government Business. — Besides this regulation of 
business by the states and by the federal government, several 
lines of important business have been carried on at the ex- 
pense of, and for the benefit of, the public. Among them are 
the following: 

(i) Several cities, especially Detroit and Cleveland, tried 
to get control of the trolley lines within their limits and 
run them as a public service. This plan did not succeed, 



466 BIG BUSINESS 

but the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston built 
and owned long subways; and San Francisco built and ran 
municipal trolley lines. 

(2) The states carried on workshops and farms in connec- 
tion with their prisons, and several owned state forests. 
Some of them provided a public supply of vaccine to prevent 
smallpox, and of antitoxin to cure other diseases. 

(3) The federal government carried on many kinds of 
business. It has two large printing houses in Washington. 
It keeps up factories of arms and military material at Spring- 
field, Rock Island, and elsewhere. In its navy yards it builds 
and repairs war vessels. Ever since the Revolution, it has 
carried on a post-office business, and forbids any one else to 
carry sealed letters for profit. In 1913, it set up a parcel 
post in competition with the express companies. Recently it 
has provided a system of postal savings banks, all over the 
country. The government owns many ship canals, including 
the immense Panama Canal, and is also the sole owner of the 
Panama Railroad and a new railroad in Alaska. 

(4) Many of the cities, towns, and villages carried on the 
business of furnishing water, gas, and electric light to all who 
chose to pay for those services, and also furnished electric 
power. A few cities have run public newspapers, milk sta- 
tions, medical dispensaries, and even theaters. 

At every presidential election since 1892, there has been a 
" Socialist " candidate, representing a body of people now 
numbering several millions, who would like to have the 
government take over all the business of the country — 
railroads, factories, stores, and everything else. No country 
in the world has ever carried out this idea. It would involve 
the breaking up of all private business, and the giving up of all 
private ownership in land. It would put into the hands of 
those who might be elected as heads of the government, the 
right to decide what should be the labor and the pay of every 
man and woman in the country. Mining, manufacturing, 
transportation, and even farming would be carried on by 
state officials. Every workman and workwoman would be 
on salary, and all the profits would go to the government 



GOVERNMENT BUSINESS 467 

to be used for the common welfare. Quite distinct from the 
Socialists is a small body of " Anarchists," who denounce all 
government. 

The sense of a close relation between government and busi- 
ness was shown by adding three new departments to the 
Cabinet, In 1889 a Secretary of Agriculture was appointed, 
in 1903 a Secretary of Commerce, and in 1913 a Secretary of 
Labor. The War of 191 7 with Germany made it necessary 
for the United States to take control, for the time, of the 
railroads, coal industry, certain food supplies, merchant ship- 
ping, and other lines of business. 

373. Summary. — This chapter describes the great re- 
sources of the country, the growth of powerful corporations 
called trusts, and the efforts to control them. 

The United States has become one of the strongest nations 
in the world. This is due to the natural riches of the country, 
to the character of the people, and to new inventions. But 
some of these advantages were absorbed by a small number of 
shrewd and farseeing men. The conditions of the times made 
very rich men and wealthy families possible. Firms and 
companies were combined into large corporations. 

The first attempt to regulate business corporations by act 
of Congress was the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890; then 
laws were passed for pure food and drugs. These were fol- 
lowed by the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Trade Act, 
and the Child Labor Act. 

Besides trying to control big business, the cities, the states, 
and the national government took over some kinds of busi- 
ness ; and new commissions and officials were created to super- 
vise and control business. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Wall Maps, nos. 19, 21. 

Histories. Bassett, Un. States, 731-744, 829-834. — Beard, Con- 
temporary Hist., 229-274, 296-316, 331-336. — Bogart, Economic Hist., 
chs. xxv-xxxii. — Coman, Industrial Hist., 347-369. — Dewey, National 
Problems, chs. xii, xviii. — Haworth, Reconstruction and Union, 196-218, 
228-231. — Moore, Industrial Hist., 428-438, 480-491. — Paxson, New 
Nation, 164-168, 293-323. 



468 BIG BUSINESS 

Sources. Beard, Readings in Am. Government, ch. xxxii. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, IV. § 201. 

Side Lights and Stories. Brown, Through the Mill (Child labor). — 
Carnegie, Gospel of Wealth. — Connolly, Jeb Hutton. — Drysdale, Fast 
Mail. — Hill, Highways oj Progress. — Hurt, Scarlet Shadow. — Kipling, 
Captains Courageous. — Merwin and Webster, Calumet "K" ; Short- 
Line War. — Mitchell, Organized Labor. — Paine, Cadet of the Black Star 
Line. — Rocheleau, Great Am. Industries. — Tarbell, Standard Oil Com- 
pany. 

Pictiu'es. Bogart, Economic Hist. — Conian, Industrial Hist. — 
Scientific American. — See also refs. to ch. xxxv. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 366) I . What were the main reasons for the prosperity of the country? 

(§ 367) 2. What are the important modern inventions in machinery? 
in transportation? 3. How did automobiles affect business and social life? 
4 (For an essay). An automobile trip. 

(§ 368) 5. How were pavements and roads improved? 6. What was 
the "good roads" movement? 7 (For an essay). Old-fashioned roads. 

(§ 3^'9) 8. How was the condition of the people improved by education? 
9. How was it improved by attention to health? 10. How did Americans 
compare with foreigners? 

(§ 370) II. What kind of people early became leaders? 12. How did 
successful business men come to the front? 13. How did their leadership 
in business help the small investor? 14 (For an essay). The business 
career of Cornelius Vanderbilt or of James J. Hill. 15. How did great 
corporations arise? 

(§ 371) 16. What were monopolies and trusts? 17. Why did the states 
find it hard to regulate the trusts? 18. What was the Sherman Antitrust 
Act? 19. What other acts did Congress pass to regulate business? 

(§ 372) 20 (For an essay). City-owned street railroads in Cleveland or 
in Detroit or in San Francisco. 21. What kinds of business were carried 
on by the states? by the federal government? by the cities? 22. What 
was the Socialist idea of business and government? 23. How did the 
federal government enlarge its control of business? 



CHAPTER XXXV 
THE PEOPLE'S LIFE (1900-1916) 

374. Population and Cities. — The number of people in the 
United States grew rapidly. From about 4 million in 1790 
it rose to about 100 million of " continental " population in 
1916; besides nearly 10 million in Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the 
Philippines. Nearly a third of the continental population 
lived in the old South, and about a fourth lived west of 
the Mississippi River. More than 30 million out of the 100 
million lived in cities. 

Most of .the great cities lay along the Atlantic coast, the 
Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Pacific coast. 
These crowded centers brought many new problems for law- 
makers and officials. Millions of foreigners, many of whom 
could not speak English, had to be taken care of. The build- 
ing of " sky-scraper " business blocks and office buildings 
brought much of the business into small areas in each city; 




(c) Detroit Pub. Co. 
'Sky-scraper" oflSce buildings in lower New York 



and hundreds of thousands of people had to be carried into and 
out of the business centers every day. Most cities had a 
crowded and unwholesome " slum " district, which needed 
regulation. The great numbers of children needed new 

469 



470 



THE PEOPLE'S LIFE 



schools and playgrounds. Parks and boulevards were pro- 
vided, and some cities began to tear down and rebuild on a 
better and more healthful plan. 

375. Native Bom and Immigrants. — Notwithstanding the 
checks laid upon immigrants (§311) the number kept rising. 

1,300,000 
1,200,000 
1,100,000 
1,000,000 
•f 900,000 

p 

S 800,000 

g 700,000 

"S 600,000 

_§ 500,000 

s 

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300,000 
200,000 
100,000 







































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The distance of the curve from the base shows the number of immigrants entering the 
United States every year since 1820 

In the twenty years from 1893 to 1913 they were 13,900,000. 
In this immense number were few of the English, Germans, 
Irish, and Scandinavians who had previously been the princi- 
pal immigrants. The majority were now Italians, Portuguese, 
Hungarians, Croatians, Russian and Polish Jews, Bohemians, 
Bulgarians, Albanians, French Canadians, Mexicans, Greeks, 
and even Turks, Syrians, and Arabs. 

The effect of immigration was somewhat reduced by about 
700,000 American farmers from the northwestern states, who 
crossed the border to take up Canadian wheat lands; and 
hundreds of thousands of Italians and others went back to 
Europe. During the Great War in Europe, also, immigration 
was small. The census of 1910 showed that out of 82 million 
white people in the continental United States, 13 million were 
foreign born and 19 million more were children of foreign-born' 
parents; probably 18 million more were grandchildren of 



NATIVE BORN AND IMMIGRANTS 



471 




This shows the distribution of inunigrants in 1910. For example, they were between 10 and 
IS per cent of the population in Ohio but less than 5 per cent of the population in Kentucky 

foreign-born persons. Therefore, at least 50 million immi- 
grants or children and grandchildren of immigrants were alive 
in the United States in 1910, against 32 million descended 
solely from the people, mainly English or English-speaking, 
who were in the coun- 
try before the Revolu- 
tion. 

The immigrants were 
scattered all over the 
Union, though only one 
sixteenth of them were 
in the southern states. 
Although there were 
so many unskilled 
laborers seeking em- 
ployment, most of them 
found work; and hun- 
dreds of thousands 
were able to buy little homes and to become full-fledged 
Americans. The public schools proved to be a great aid in 
assimilating these people of many kinds. 




Sod house of immigrant family on the prairie 



472 THE PEOPLE'S LIFE 

Various attempts were made to shut out part of the immi- 
grants. A small head tax was raised to $8 for each immigrant 
(191 7). Sick, helpless, and diseased people, even if they had 
only a slight trouble with the eyes, were sent back to Europe. 
In 191 7 an act was passed over the veto of President Wilson 
which excluded all grown people who could not read some 
language. 

376. Chinese and Japanese. — The census of 1910 showed 
71,000 Chinese and 72,000 Japanese in our countr>'. The 
Chinese, under the law excluding Chinese laborers (§ 312), 
were diminishing. Since there was no law against the immi- 
gration of Japanese, the people of the Pacific coast were afraid 
that great numbers would come over and form permanent 
settlements. In 1906 the school authorities of San Francisco 
for a time excluded all Japanese from schools for white chil- 
dren. The Japanese government, however, stopped the de- 
parture of laborers from Japan, without any formal agreement 
to that effect. 

Later the state of California passed an act forbidding 
Japanese to acquire land (19 13), an act which the Japanese 
government resented. Chinese and Japanese students and 
business men were welcomed, but there was strong objection 
to receiving Asiatics in large numbers. Doubtless there would 
be just such objections in Japan if scores of thousands of 
American laborers were to settle down there and compete 
with the native laborers. 

377. Place of Women. — The first societies for women's 
rights began nearly a hundred years ago, and were intended to 
secure for women greater control of their own property and 
children. The next step was the better education of girls, in 
common schools, then in public high schools, then in most of 
the western colleges and universities (§ 248), and in some 
eastern ones. A special group of colleges, of which Vassar 
was the first, was founded for the separate college educa- 
tion of girls. "Coordinate colleges" were founded alongside 
Harvard, Columbia, Western Reserve, and some other men's 
universities. 

Better education fitted women for new chances of business 



PLACE OF WOMEN 



473 



and employment, and many became inspectors, clerks, ste- 
nographers, librarians, saleswomen, bookkeepers, and man- 
agers and owners of stores. Factories took from the home 
many of the old-fashioned industries, such as spinning, weav- 
ing, and making clothing. This set free great numbers of 
women who found employment in the textile mills and in 




Original building of Wellesley College for women, erected in 1876 

Other lines of work not requiring great manual strength, 
A few women became lawyers, doctors, ministers, architects, 
journalists, and college professors. In some states, after 
1869, women were given the right to vote on the same terms 
as men, beginning in the frontier states where women took a 
large part in the new settlements. 

Education, votes, and employment for women all depended 
upon a growing belief that they had an important part in 
public and commercial life, and that they must take a new 
place in the work of making the United States great. There- 
fore women were chosen as managers of charitable societies, 
as presidents of women's colleges, as workers in social settle- 
ments; and in some states they became superintendents of 
city schools and of state school systems and even members of 

hart's sch. hist. — 27 



474 



THE PEOPLE'S LIFE 




Frances E. Willard 



legislatures. Some of them, such 
as Frances E. Willard and Jane 
Addams, headed reform move- 
ments. 

378. Labor. — No questions 
were more serious from 1890 to 
1916 than those concerning labor. 
Employees felt that nothing but 
organizations of the workmen 
could resist combinations of the 
employers; so as fast as the trusts 
grew, labor unions also grew. 
Various attempts were made to 
unite these workmen's organizations. The American Federa- 
tion of Labor took in most of the skilled trades (§ 338). In 
the Rocky Mountain section the Western Federation of 
Miners controlled the local miners' unions in many regions. 
Special unions were formed to protect workers in the " sweat 
shop " industries, carried on in dwellings, at low wages and 
in poor conditions. 

The rivalry between big interests and labor unions led to 
many violent strikes. In 1902 an informal commission was 
appointed, which successfully settled a strike of the coal 
miners in eastern Pennsylvania. Two years later the miners 
and the state authorities in Colorado came almost to civil 
war. Many strikes occurred among the employees of traction 
companies, and passengers who continued to use the cars 
were often badly handled. Some unions did their best to 
keep their members orderly; but the hoodlums of the cities 
made use of the excitement of strikes to fight, and resisted 
the police as well as the militia which were called out. 

These organized efforts by laborers and their friends, to- 
gether with other causes, brought about such important results 
as higher wages, shorter hours of labor, and weekly payments; 
state and national laws limiting child labor, requiring proper 
safeguards in the use of dangerous machinery, and providing 
for compensation to be paid for injuries or death of workmen, 
caused by their work. 



LABOR AND EDUCATION 475 

379. Societies. — Societies of all kinds flourished in these 
prosperous times. The great secret orders grew (§ 200) and 
several new ones sprang up, such as the Elks, the Moose, and 
the Catholic order of the Knights of Columbus. Politicians 
founded societies and clubs of their friends and followers. 
Reform societies were established to spread information on 
such questions as child labor, the short ballot, and prison 
management. The descendants of soldiers of Colonial wars 
and the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican 
War, and the Civil War formed patriotic orders. It was an 
era of societies. 

One of the most striking things a.t this time was the way in 
which the country took up the idea that people who had the 
same interests ought to join in national associations. Not 
only the labor men but the employers formed unions which 
met from time to time in mass meetings or in conventions of 
delegates, to decide upon their course of action. The ministers, 
doctors, engineers, and men and women of many other calhngs 
formed great national societies, some of which had thousands 
of members. Some of the fraternal orders counted more than 
a million members, including subordinate societies of women 
and young men. An example of the great national societies 
was the National Education Association which was started in 
1857; in 1900 it had only 2500 members, but in 1915, the 
active paying membership was 7000 and the annual meetings 
were attended by as many as 13,000. 

380. Education and Literature. — To supplement the older 
kinds of schools (§ 247), public evening schools and continua- 
tion schools were organized; free public libraries furnished 
reading matter for pupils and those who could not attend 
school. Some states like Wisconsin provided traveling li- 
braries sent from community to community. The endowed 
and state universities nearly all added scientific schools or 
departments, which taught science, engineering, architecture, 
and like subjects, and opened their doors to women. The 
agricultural colleges provided classes in cattle feeding, butter 
making, stock judging, and the study of soils and seeds. 
The great expositions, such as those in Chicago in 1893, in St. 



476 



THE PEOPLE'S LIFE 



Louis in 1904, and in San Francisco in 1915, did much to edu- 
cate the people. Education was thought to be no longer a 
matter simply of books and memory, but of training in 
practical things. 




The " Tower of Jewels " and other buildings at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, 
San Francisco 



For the reading of the community, a new literature of cheap 
newspapers sprang up, containing a vast amount of informa- 
tion about the world. To the old-fashioned magazines were 
added ten cent and fifteen cent magazines full of pictures, and 
made to pay by a great number of advertisements. 

A new feature of school and college life was organized athlet- 
ics. The simple friendly games of baseball or football, or 
contests in rowing, gave way to elaborate uniforms and prac- 
tice grounds and coaches, to prepare for games which were 
sometimes witnessed by 50,000 people. It was fun, it did 
some good to athletics, and it encouraged boys and girls to like 
outdoor life. Rowing, swimming, tennis, golf, basket ball, 
baseball, football, soccer — all took up too much of the pupils' 
time, but helped to make healthy bodies. 

381. Summary. — This chapter deals with the social con- 
ditions and life of the people during the early part of the 
twentieth century. 

The population of the United States rose by 1916 to over a 
hundred millions, nearly one third of them in cities. Immi- 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 477 

grants were numerous, mostly from eastern Europe, and some 
efforts were made to reduce the annual number. The Chinese 
immigration was diminishing, the Japanese increasing. There 
was hostility to the Chinese and the Japanese on the Pacific 
coast. 

Women were admitted to colleges and schools, and more 
and more employments were opened to them. 

Labor organizations grew fast and secured for their mem- 
bers many benefits, such as higher wages, shorter hours, and 
improved methods of protecting life and health. 

Social clubs and orders grew, and also literary and scientific 
societies. Education of every kind flourished. The schools 
were aided by libraries and special courses; and athletics in- 
terested school and college students. 




The " Old Yale Fence " around the college campus. From a painting by A» C* 

Howland, N. A. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Sanford, Am. Hist. Maps, no. 31. 

Histories. Am. Year Book, beginning 1910. — Fish, Dev. of Am. 
Nation., ch. xxviii. — Haworth, Reconstruction and Union, 241-245. — • 
International Year Book, beginning year 1898. — Moore, Industrial Hist., 
273-298. — Southworth, Builders of Our Country, II. ch. xxviii. 

Sources. Hart, Contemporaries, IV. §§ 206-209; Source Book, 
§§ 139. 145- — Articles on American life in monthly, weekly, and daily 
periodicals. 



478 THE PEOPLE'S LIFE 

Side Lights and Stories. Abbott, Autobiography. — Addams, Hull- 
House. — Antin, Promised Land. — Carlelon, One Way Out. — Ilartt, 
People at Play. — Hecker, Woman's Rights. — McKecver, Farm Boys 
and Girls. — Paine, College Years; Greater America. — Riciiardson, 
Long Day (Working girl). — Riis, Children of the Poor; How the Other 
Half Lives. — St. Nicholas (magazine). — Van Vorst, Woman who Toils. — 
Wyckoff, The Workers. 

Pictures. American Forestry. — American Mag. — Century. — Cos- 
mopolitan. — Harper's. — Independent. — Mentor, serial nos. 55, 67, 93 
109, III. — Metropolitan. — Munsey's. — National Parks Portfolio. — 
National Geogr. Mag. — Nat. Geogr. Soc., Washington, the Nation's 
Capital. — Outlook. — Review of Reviews. — Scientific American. — Scrib- 
ner's. — Survey. — World's Work. — See also refs. to ch. xxxvi. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 374) I- How was the population distributed in 1916? 2. How did 
the growth of population affect the cities? 

(§ 375) 3- Of what races were the immigrants after 1890? 4. What 
emigration was there from the United States? 5 (For an essay). The 
different race elements in some one city. 6. What part of the population 
was not descended from English ancestors? 7. How did the immigrants 
find work? 8. How was immigration reduced? 9 (For an essay). A 
visit to an immigrant station. 

(§ 376) 10- How did the Japanese and Chinese come in? 11 (For an 
essay). A Chinese quarter in some city. 12. How were the Japanese and 
Chinese received? 

(§ 377) 13- How did the women get higher education? 14 (For an 
essay). Life in a woman's college. 15. What new occupations were 
opened to women? 16. How did women come to be leaders in public 
affairs? 

(§ 378) 17. How did the labor organizations prosper? 18. 
strikes carried on? 19 (For an essay). A strike in some city, 
improvements were made in labor conditions? 

(§ 379) 21. How did societies and fraternities spring up? 
were national organizations formed? 

(§ 380) 23. What aids to public education were provided? 
cheap reading matter arose? 25. How did organized athletics come about? 
26 (For an essay). Early baseball. 



Hov 


.' were 


20. 


What 


22. 


How 


24. 


What 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

NEW PROBLEMS FOR AMERICANS TO SOLVE 
(1890-1916) 

382. States and Territories. — The rapid growth of popula- 
tion spread to the far West, and between 1896 and 1912 four 
new states were admitted to the Union, as follows: 

(i) Utah was admitted in 1896 (45th state) with a constitu- 
tion which forever forbade polygamy. The population was 
240,000. Utah had many valuable mines and some fruitful 
land; and it was the first state to make large use of irrigation. 

(2) The two adjoining territories of Oklahoma and Indian 
Territory were in 1907 combined and admitted as Oklahoma 
(the 46th state) with about 1,000,000 inhabitants. This was 
a rich region, abounding in timber, coal, and oil, and fertile for 
raising wheat, corn, fruit, tobacco, and cotton. When the 
lands there were first opened for settlement, beginning in 1889, 
there was a helter-skelter rush from the border, and the ter- 
ritory filled up fast. The 150,000 Indians gave up their tribal 
rights and lands (1910-1914); thus they became citizens and 
formed the first large body of Indian voters. 

(3) New Mexico had been a territory ever since 1850 
(§240). A large portion of the people were of Mexican 
blood. Part of the territory was desert, but there were rich 
mines and some good land, especially for cattle raising. New 
Mexico was admitted in 1912, as the 47th state, with about 
300,000 people. 

(4) Arizona, a mining and cattle-ranching territory, had less 
available land than New Mexico, either for raising crops or for 
cattle. There were no large rivers in the state, except the 
Colorado, which is not much used for irrigation, but the 
Grand Canyon of the Colorado is one of the most magni- 
ficent places on earth (§§ i, 304). The dry and bracing 

479 



48o NEW PROBLEMS FOR AMERICANS TO SOLVE 

climate of the state makes it a resort for those who need and 
love open-air life. The population when the state was ad- 
mitted in 1 912 was about 200,000. 

With the admission of Arizona as the 48th state the last 
of the territories disappeared from the so-called " continental 
area " of the United States; but the Hawaiian Islands were 
a territory; Porto Rico was a kind of territory; and Alaska 
was made a regular territory with a legislature in 1912. This 
immense region with its 591,000 square miles had then only 
about 64,000 people. By that time the placer gold in the 
mountain streams was about all taken, but very rich deep gold 
mines had been opened. Along the southern coast of the terri- 
tory, copper and valuable coal mines were discovered. Should 
the mines develop as is expected, Alaska will sometime prob- 
ably become a state in the Union. Next in value to the 
mines were the coast and river fisheries. 

383. Conservation (1900-1916). — In the discussions on 
the admission of new states and the management of Alaska the 
question was raised whether the United States was doing the 
best thing for the interests of the country by turning over to 
private owners such quantities of public land. From the 
earliest colonial days it was the theory that the buyer of land 
owned all the timber that grew on it, all the minerals, oil, 
and gas below the soil, and all the water power in the streams. 
By 1910 the government had given away or sold nearly all the 
good farming or cattle land, but it still held immense areas of 
mountains and deserts in which there were gold, silver, coal, 
oil, and other minerals, some timber, and many magnificent 
water powers. 

About 1900 a movement began called " conservation," the 
purpose of which was to prevent the government from turning 
over these valuable things in the former reckless fashion. 
The conservationists demanded that such lands should be 
reserved; or if they were sold, the buyer should pay a price 
that would cover the special advantages. 

(l) In the western mountain districts the rivers were liable 
to floods in winter and spring, and some of them ran almost dry 
in summer. Why not build reservoirs, and distribute the 



CONSERVATION 



481 



water through irrigation canals to lands that otherwise could 
not be tilled? This idea was taken up by Congress in the 
Newlands Act (1902), which provided that all the proceeds from 
sales of lands in the western states might be applied to building 
reservoirs and canals. In the next thirteen years about 
$100,000,000 was thus expended. Land thus supplied with 
unfailing water sold as high as $40 an acre. 

(2) Reservations of areas containing magnificent scenery 
began as early as 1872; among them were such areas as 
the Yosemite and Yellow- 
stone parks, the Big Trees 
of California, Pyramid 
Lake, Mount Rainier, and 
Glacier Park. 

(3) Fearful waste had 
taken place in the forests. 
The government laid a price 
of $10 an acre on lands that 
had been specially called 
timber land; but private 
parties often stole the tim- 
ber from government lands. 
To stop the waste, the gov- 
ernment began (1891) to 
reserve national forests 
which were extended till 
they covered an area larger 
than Texas. 

(4) Coal lands were also supposed to be reserved, but were 
often bought as farm land. In 1910 Congress decided that the 
coal, oil, and gas beneath any lands sold thenceforth should 
remain the property- of the government when land was sold. 

(5) Water powers in the mountains were not valuable till 
the invention of a method for carrying electric power long 
distances by wires. Then investors began to buy up falls and 
rapids wherever they could be found. The federal govern- 
ment, the state of New York, and the Dominion of Canada 
together arranged for taking part of the water from Niagara 



i: I / i 


fl^l 






^^Mm^^ii^ne 


^^^^^^^-^',^^■£1^11 



(f) Underwood b' Underwood 
Cutting down a giant Sequoia tree, California 



1 10° Longitude 11)5' West 100 ' i 




95 Groeiiwicli '.10 




484 NEW PROBLEMS FOR AMERICANS TO SOLVE 

F'alls for power. A dam was built at Keokuk on the Mississippi 
River; the fall was only a few feet but the great quantity of 
water made it valuable. Congress finally (1916) adopted the 
principle that it would not sell or grant the water powers that 
were then on public lands, but would lease such powers to 
private users for terms not longer than fifty years. 

The real reason for conservation was that the American 
people had waked up to the fact that the nation owned 
property and privileges worth thousands of millions and that 
they ought to be saved for the people then living and for later 
generations, and not turned over to make a comparatively 
small number of people rich. 

384. Ballot Reform (1890-1916). — This desire to give the 
good things to all the people and not to a few made itself felt 
also in politics and parties. There was a feeling that somehow 
the people did not have their own way, that the voting system 
was clumsy and lent itself to fraud, that parties were managed 
by a few persons, and that the voters had to accept the candi- 
dates and the platforms set up for them by others. 

Down to 1890, in all American elections tickets were printed 
and distributed by the parties, and men were employed as 
ticket peddlers at the polls. Crowds gathered about the ballot 
boxes and sometimes honest voters were not allowed to ap- 
proach. To reform this great abuse the so-called " Australian 
ballot " system was devised by which the tickets for each 
election — usually all on one big ballot — w^ere printed by 
authority of the state government for each election. This 
ballot contained the names of all the people who had been 
nominated for offtce by all parties, and the voter marked 
upon it with a pencil cross the candidates or the ticket for 
which he wished to vote. None but the officials, and the 
voters while casting their votes, were to remain near the 
polls. New efforts were made to shut out fraudulent voters 
who might try to vote on the names of the real voters. 

Both the old ballot and the Australian ballot contained too 
many names. In some states there are thirty or forty officers 
to be voted on at each election. To meet this difficulty a 
reform was pushed called the " short ballot," which simply 



THE BALLOT AND THE SUFFRAGE 485 

meant that the states and cities ought to put a very small num- 
ber of officers before the people at each election ; and that the 
other officers ought to be appointed by the governor or mayor. 
This, it was thought, would bring out stronger candidates, for 
all parties would try to put up their strongest men, and men 
who were known throughout the state or city. 

385. Changes in the Suffrage (i 869-1916). — The question 
of the ballot was closely connected with the question, who may 
cast a ballot. In the United States most of the states allowed 
" manhood suffrage " ; that is, any man could vote if he were a 
citizen of the United States, were twenty-one years old, and 
were not criminal or insane. A few states allowed no one to 
vote who could not read and write; and a few others required 
the payment of a small tax. Then, after .1890, seven of the 
southern states adopted new qualifications intended to prevent 
many of the negroes from voting. Whenever foreign men were 
naturalized, they enjoyed the suffrage on the same terms as 
native born citizens; and if their state had no educational 
qualifications, they might vote, though they could not speak a 
word of English. 

A part of the early movement for women's rights (§ 377) 
was a demand for " Votes for Women," which had been going 
on for half a century. In 1869, woman suffrage was granted 
by Wyoming, which had a small population, containing more 
men than women. Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Cal- 
ifornia, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, New 
York, and the territory of Alaska followed. So that in 1918 
women could vote on the same terms as men in twelve states 
and one territory, out of forty-eight states and two territories. 
In addition, in Illinois and several other states, women were 
given the right to vote for presidential electors and for some 
stale and local officers. In many other states women exercised 
the right to vote for school officers or in local and city affairs. 

In states where women could vote on the same terms as 
men, they could also be elected to the legislatures and to 
other offices. Many women were made superintendents of 
county, city, or state schools by election. In some states 
they sat on juries. A woman member of Congress was 



486 NEW PROBLEMS FOR A^IERICANS TO SOLVT 



elected from Montana in 1916. Woman suffrage made little 
difference with the relative strength of the political parties, 
but it put a pressure on state governments to make reforms 
that women believed to be needed. 

386. Commission Government for Cities. — The principle 
of the short ballcjt appiierl also in commission governments for 

cities. In 1910 nearly a 
third of the people of the 
United States were living 
in cities or towns, and 
hardly a single one of those 
governments was as well 
managed as most private 
corporations. 

The cities laid out broad 
streets, parks, and boule- 
xards, put up magnificent 
buildings and bridges, 
spent large sums for light- 
ing, sewerage, police, fire 
protection, and schools, yet 
used poor and wasteful 
methods. The city of 
New York raised and spent 
about one fifth as much as 
tlic national government, 
and still had dirty streets. 
The main trouble was that 
the city governments were 
clumsy and often fell into 
the hands of politicians 
who had not the ability or the public spirit to carry on 
such immense affairs. Most of the cities were tangled up in 
a complicated form of government. They had too many 
councilmen, too many aldermen, too many separate depart- 
ments, such as streets, fire, police, or public property. The 
cities spent too much money and gave the public too little in 
return for their taxes. 




Metropolitan Tower, an office building in New 
York 



CITY GOVERNMENT 



487 




How could the municipal power be made more simple and 
direct? In 1900 the people of Galveston, Texas, in order to 
restore their city after a fearful storm, asked the state to give 
them a commission of five men who should vote all the city 
ordinances, manage all 
the city departments, lay 
all the city taxes, spend 
all the city money, and 
appoint all the other city 
officers. This " commis- 
sion government" worked 
so well that the idea 
rapidly spread. Within 
fifteen years it was in 
operation in about 400 
cities in all parts of the 
Union. By this method, 
if anything went wrong, 
the failure came right home 
to the commissioners. 

387. Nominating Conventions and Primary Elections. — 
Long experience showed that it was almost impossible to elect 
any one to office who was not nominated beforehand by some 
party. Whoever could control the party nominations could 
therefore decide who should come before the voters. The 
usual way of nominating was by conventions of delegates; and 
shrewd party managers often controlled such delegates. 

To meet this difficulty a system called the " direct primary " 
was introduced, by which the voters belonging to a particular 
party voted directly for one or another candidate for nomina- 
tion. This took place at an election carried on under state 
laws, and the men who received the most votes in the primary 
of any particular party would be placed on the ballot as the 
candidate of that party at the regular election. This new 
method rapidly spread to nominations of members of the legis- 
lature, and other state-elected officers, to Congressmen and 
even to Senators; and it has been suggested for the nomina- 
tion of Presidents. 



The wreckage, after a fearful storm, at 
Galveston, Texas 



488 NEW PROBLEMS FOR AMERICANS TO SOLVE 

Notwithstanding the wide use of the primary, it did not 
work perfectly. Obscure men often pushed themselves for- 
ward, especially for the small offices. The most serious 
difficulty was that only a part of the voters, sometimes less 
than one fourth, would take the trouble to go to the primary 
election ; though a good number would turn up at the regular 
election. 

Where the state governments made up an official ballot, 
some state official had to decide what candidate was nomi- 
nated by each party, and that brought the parties and their 
organization under some control by the state. The parties 
were all managed by national, state, city, county, ward, or 
township political committees, which in most cases practically 
elected themselves. 

Above and behind the committees were the party leaders, 
often called " bosses." Some of them held office for a time 
as members of city councils, mayors, members of legislatures, 
governors, or members of Congress. Others, and some of the 
most important, never held any office. They managed 
elections, raised money, distributed offices, and decided who 
should be put on the party tickets for election. 

Some bosses were public-spirited men who aimed only to 
bring out the vote and keep their party on the safe side, for 
no popular government can be kept going in a big country 
like ours without parties and political organization. Other 
bosses, however, were corrupt leaders who were chiefly con- 
cerned with making money out of politics. 

388. Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. — The boss sys- 
tem extended to the legislatures and city councils. 

Under the influence of bosses, legislatures sometimes passed 
bills which their constituents did not like, or refused to pass 
bills for which there was a strong public desire. There was, 
however, a well-known way in which certain laws could be 
passed over the heads of the legislators; the people could 
vote on adopting constitutions which had been framed by a 
convention and had never been passed on by legislatures 
(§ no). Why not apply the same method to ordinary 
laws? 



NEW POLITICAL METHODS 489 

This system, which was commonly called the " referendum," 
had been used in some foreign countries, and also for some 
state laws; for instance, in votes on "local option" — the 
question of allowing the sale of liquor in a given city or district. 
Beginning with South Dakota in 1898, the states began to 
provide by their constitutions that an act passed by the legis- 
lature must be voted on at a popular election before it went 
into effect, if a sufficient number of voters demanded that it 
be so submitted. This was called "compulsory referendum." 

What could be done in case a legislature refused to take 
action which the people wished? To meet this case the " in- 
itiative" was suggested; that is, an informal group of citizens, 
usually five or ten per cent of the voters, might join in propos- 
ing what they thought a proper law or constitutional amend- 
ment. At the next election the people would have an oppor- 
tunity to vote for or against it, without its going through the 
legislature at all. In 1915 nineteen states had introduced the 
referendum and eighteen had added the initiative. A diffi- 
culty in using the initiative and referendum was that voters 
would not turn out in large numbers for a special election; 
and if the propositions were to be voted on at a regular 
election, thousands of men would vote for President, gov- 
ernor, and mayor, but would neglect to express an opinion 
upon the referendum on laws or constitutional amend- 
ments. 

The initiative and the referendum were expected to secure 
for the people the laws that they wanted. Could the same 
principle be applied to an elective official who neglected his 
duty or defied the laws? One way was to refuse to reelect 
such officials; their terms were short, and they would soon 
come to the end of their service. In some states a quicker 
method was found in the " recall "; by this plan such officials 
might be obliged at any time to submit to a special election, 
which decided whether somebody else should take their 
places. The recall was first applied to holders of small 
offices, then to mayors of cities in Washington and California. 
Up to 191 6 the recall had never been used against governors 
or other high executive officers, although such use is possible 



490 NEW PROBLEMS FOR AMERICANS TO SOLVE 

in several states. In a few states the system also applied to 
judges. 

389. The Hague Conferences. — During this period the 
United States took an important part in promoting peace 
and strengthening international law. The first Hague Con- 
ference, attended by representatives of twenty-six nations in 
1899, set up a tribunal to which any two nations could refer a 
dispute for peaceful settlement. A second Conference in 1907 
drew up conventions or treaties which were ratified by all the 
great powers and most of the smaller nations, encouraging ar- 
bitration and adopting definite rules to prevent or mitigate the 
worst horrors of warfare. Friends of peace the world over 
hoped that later Conferences would succeed in organizing a 
world league of nations that would end war altogether. 

390. Summary. — This chapter describes new problems in 
the public welfare and in political methods, and the novel 
methods of the initiative, referendum, and recall. 

Between 1896 and 1912 the four remaining territories in 
the main part of the United States — Utah, Oklahoma, New 
Mexico, and Arizona — all became states. Alaska, the Ha- 
waiian Islands, and Porto Rico became territories. In the 
West there was a movement for conservation : this meant the 
holding by the government of timber and coal lands, and 
sites for water powers and irrigation works. 

Political methods were altered by the Australian ballot and 
short-ballot systems; the suffrage in many states was ex- 
tended to women. Commission governments were set up for 
many cities. In politics the direct primary took the place 
of the convention in many states. This was one of several 
measures intended to cut down the power of political bosses. 

Another method was to introduce the initiative, or popular 
vote on laws that had not gone to the legislature; and the 
referendum, or popular vote on measures that had passed 
the legislature. Several states provided for the recall of 
public officers. 

In international politics the United States favored arbi- 
tration in place of war, and it took part in the Hague Con- 
ferences of 1899 and 1907. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 49 1 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Hart, Monroe Doctrine, hontis.; Wall Maps, nos. 20, 22, 24. 

Histories. Am. Year Book, 1910-1916, — Bassett, Un. States, 711- 
712. — Beard, Contemporary Hist., 283-296. — Bogart, Economic Hist., 
ch. xxxiii. — Coman, Industrial Hist., ch. xi. — Moore, Industrial Hist., 
54-60. — Paxson, New Nation, 242-251, 290-334. 

Sources. Beard, Readings in Am. Government, §§ 37, 45, 52-54, 162- 
228. — Beard and Shultz, Documents on State-wide Initiative. — Hart, 
Contemporaries, IV. §§197, 198-200, 202. — James, Readings, §104. — 
Monthly and weekly periodicals; newspapers. 

Side Lights and Stories. Dunne, Mr. Dooley (several volumes). — ■ 
Foote, Chosen Valley (Irrigation). — Oilman, In This Our World (Verse). — 
Irwin, Random Rhymes, etc. — Luther, The Henchman. — Roosevelt, 
Autobiography. — ■ Wright, Winning of Barbara Worth (Reclamation). 

Pictures. Cartoons and other illustrations in: Collier's; Harper's 
Weekly; Independent; Literary Digest; Outlook; Review of Reviews; 
World's Work, etc. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 382) I. How was Utah admitted to the Union? 2 (For an essay). 
A visit to Salt Lake City. 3. How was Oklahoma admitted? 4 (For an 
essay). A visit to Oklahoma. 5. How was New Mexico admitted? 6. 
How was Arizona admitted? 7 (For an essay). A visit to the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado. 8. How were the new territories organized? 
9 (For an essay). A visit to Honolulu. 

(§383) 10. To whom did minerals, water power, etc., belong? 11. 
What is "conservation"? 12. How was irrigation provided? 13. What 
were the reservations of scenery? 14 (For an essay). A visit to Glacier 
National Park. 15. How were coal, oil, and gas reserved? 16. How was 
water power reserved? 

(§384) 17. Why were people dissatisfied with politics? 18. What was 
the "Australian ballot" reform? 19. What was the "short-ballot" reform? 

(§ 385) 20. What were the conditions of suflfrage? 21. How did woman 
suffrage come about? 22. What offices could women hold? 

(§ 386) 23. How were cities governed? 24. What were the difficulties 
of city government? 25. What was "commission government"? 

(§ 387) 26. What were the difficulties of nominations to office? 27. 
What was the "direct primary"? 28 (For an essay). An old-fashioned 
nominating convention. 29. What were the defects of the primary? 
30. How were parties connected with the governments? 31. What were 
"bosses"? 

(§388) 32. What was. the "referendum"? 33. What was the "com- 
pulsory referendum"? 34. What was the "initiative"? 35. How did 
the initiative and referendum progress? 36. What was the "recall "? 

(§389) 37- What was accomplished by the Hague Conferences? 38. 
(For an essay). The Hague conventions. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT (1905-1917) 

391. President Roosevelt (1905-1909). — With the begin- 
ning of Roosevelt's second term in 1905 came a period of great 
changes in government and politics. No previous President 
had shown such an interest in individuals, talked so freely 
about his policies, traveled so wideh', and made so many 
speeches. The President felt that he had a majority of the 
people behind him, and he took up the idea that the federal 
government must further regulate the trusts and monopolies 
and keep " big business " in order. 




Steamer passing through the Gatun Locks, in the Panama Canal. The ship is towed by 
electric engines on the tracks at each side 

He was also active in foreign afifairs, whether in Europe, Asia, 
or America. In 1905, when a fierce war was going on between 
the Russians and the Japanese in Manchuria, which was a part 
of China, he arranged for a conference between envoys of the 
two hostile powers at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and they 
made a peace acceptable to both parties. 

492 



ROOSEVELT AND TAFT 



493 



President Roosevelt was also much interested in South 
American and Central American affairs. In 1902 and 1906 
delegates were sent to Pan-American Congresses at Mexico 
and Rio de Janeiro. 'Secretary Hay (§§ 355, 362) died in 1905, 
and his successor, Elihu Root, made a brilliant Secretary of 
State and was warmly received by the South Americans. 

The President and his successor. President Taft, were 
especially interested in the work on the Panama Canal. The 
work was finally placed under the engineering management of 
Major Goethals of the 
United States Army, 
and he soon " made the 
dirt fly." The health 
of the employees was 
cared for by Colonel 
Gorgas, who showed 
great skill in saving the 
workmen from malaria 
and yellow fever, the 
two deadly foes of man 
in the tropics. In 1 912 
Congress began to con- 
struct the necessary 
forts to protect the 
canal. In 1914 the 
canal was opened for 
traffic, having cost the 
United States about 
$400,000,000. It was 

one of the largest and best engineering works in the world 
and was designed to serve an immense commerce. 

392. President Taft (1909-1913). — As the election of 1908 
approached, President Roosevelt declined to consider the 
suggestion made by some of his friends that he should stand 
for a third term; and he put forward as his candidate William 
H. Taft of Ohio, who was nominated without difficulty by the 
Republicans. Bryan, who by this time was convinced that 
free silver was not necessary, was for a third time the Demo- 

hart's sgh. hist. — 28 




William Howard Taft 



494 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 

cratic candidate and gained several states for the Democrats 
which Parker did not carry in 1904. Taft, however, was 
elected by a pluraHty of a milHon and a quarter votes. 

The new President was well trained for his high office. 
He had been a United States judge, governor-general of the 
Philippine Islands, and Secretary of War under Roosevelt. 
He was a genial, broad-minded man, who liked to go about the 
country and meet the people. Throughout his administration 
he did his best to regulate the railroads and to prosecute the 
trusts (§ 371), but he was against his will drawn into a con- 
troversy about the tariff. 

Some of the members of Congress from the strong Republi- 
can states of the Northwest, especially Minnesota, had for 
years been urging a lower rate of duty; and there was a wide- 
spread feeling that the protected interests had been too in- 
fluential in the framing of the McKinley tariff of 1890 and the 
Dingley tariff of 1897 (§ 350), which was then in force. 

The Republican majority in Congress therefore passed the 
Payne-Aldrich tariff (1909), named for the chairmen of the 
House and Senate committees that framed it. Their bill 
decreased some duties, but raised others, especially those on 
cotton goods. Some of the discontented Republicans voted 
against the bill, and President Taft hesitated to sign it. 
Finally he accepted it, and afterwards in public speeches said 
it was the best tariff that the country ever had. Protection 
thus became again an issue between the two great parties. 

393. Insurgents and Progressives (1909-1912). — The low- 
tariff Republicans, with a few other discontented Republi- 
cans, were called " Insurgents," and the regular Republicans 
were called "Standpatters." From 1910 to 1912 the In- 
surgent Republicans called themselves " Progressive Repub- 
licans " and carried several states, especially Minnesota and 
California. In 191 1 "Colonel Roosevelt," as the ex-Presi- 
dent was usually called, joined this movement. 

When the presidential campaign of 1912 came on, the Stand- 
pat Republicans supported the rcnomination of President Taft, 
and the Progressive Republicans organized in support of 
Roosevelt. The result was that in the Republican nominating 



ELECTION OF I912 



495 




Capitol at Washington, the meeting place of Congress 

convention in Chicago there were two wings contending with 
each other to get the majority of the convention for their can- 
didate. From several states two rival delegations appeared. 
Taft was nominated. The Roosevelt delegates in the con- 
vention and others organized a new Progressive party, held 
a separate convention, and nominated Roosevelt on a plat- 
form supporting many radical measures. 

The Democratic convention was much under the influence 
of William J. Bryan; and it nominated Woodrow Wilson, 
governor of New Jersey. 

A whirlwind campaign followed, much like that of 1840 
(§ 232). The main questions were the tariff, the doctrines of 
the Progressives, the characters of the three candidates, and 
the question whether Roosevelt ought to have a third term 
as President. The result was the choice of Wilson, who re- 
ceived 6,300,000 votes and carried forty out of the forty- 
eight states; and the Democrats obtained control of both 
Houses of Congress. Roosevelt had 4,100,000 votes; Taft, 
3,500,000; and Debs, the Socialist candidate, 900,000. 

394. President Wilson. — Woodrow Wilson was the first 
President since Andrew Johnson who had been born in the 
South; but he had spent most of his life in the northern 
states. After holding professorships in several colleges, he 
became president of Princeton University. In 191 1 he was 
elected as a Democratic reform governor of New Jersey, and 



496 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 



made such an impression on that doubtful state that he was 
put forward for the presidency. He was a strong and per- 
suasive writer and speaker on poHtics, and had a reputation 

for courage and de- 
c i s i on . In the 
campaign of 191 2 
he used the phrase 
the " new free- 
dom," by which 
he meant govern- 
ment by the people 
and vigor in deal- 
ing with powerful 
corporations; and 
he shared the gen- 
eral dislike of the 
Democratic party 
for the Payne-Al- 
drich tariff of 1909. 
The President's 
general political 
views were held by 
William J. Bryan, 
who was made the 
Secretary of State. 
Mr. Bryan had 
taken no previous 
official part in the 
national government except four years as a member of the 
House from Nebraska. He had, however, three times been 
the candidate of his party for the presidency (§§ 353, 361, 392) 
and had large influence throughout the country and within the 
party. In 191 5 he resigned his place in the Cabinet and was 
succeeded l)y Robert Lansing. 

395. Tariff and Income Tax (1913). — Congress was called 
in special session to revise the tariff; and under the leadership 
of Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, Chairman of the Ways 
and Means Committee and leader of the Democrats in the 




Woodrow Wilson 



WILSON'S ADMINISTRATION 497 

House, the Democrats framed a bill which considerably 
lowered the duties. President Wilson revived the method of 
making speeches direct to the members of the two Houses 
(§ 150). His influence was great enough to turn the scale 
and the Underwood tariff was passed (19 13) with a decidedly- 
lower scale of duties. 

A Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution was 
adopted (191 3), giving Congress full power to lay an income 
tax. Consequently, to the Underwood tariff was added a 
tax on all incomes in excess of $3000 ($4000 for husband and 
wife) with higher rates for very large incomes. 

Another long-pending change was included in the Seven- 
teenth Amendment (adopted 191 3), which required that the 
United States Senators should thereafter be chosen by direct 
popular vote instead of by the legislatures. 

396. Federal Reserve System and Trade Commission 
(1907-1914). — For some years the country had realized that 
the banking system and bank notes of 1862 (§ 284) no longer 
met the needs of the country, and leading Senators and 
Representatives prepared a bill for a more flexible plan. 

This idea was taken up by the Democratic Congress. 
Under the leadership of President Wilson it created an elabo- 
rate Reserve System (1913) by which the national banks 
were organized into groups, the whole governed by a central 
banking board appointed by the President. The new system 
was intended to aid small borrowers, especially in the country, 
and to enable the banks to help each other in time of need. 

The country, as well as the Democratic party itself, was 
divided as to whether there was need of any further laws to 
regulate the trusts. The railroads were under the Interstate 
Commerce Commission and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 
1890 (§ 371). All corporations which did an interstate busi- 
ness were paying taxes to the government and had to carry 
on business under the Sherman Act. Nobody knew just 
what that act meant, and President Wilson led the Democrats 
in passing the act for a Trade Commission (§371), which was 
to have power to investigate corporations that were suspected 
of being trusts and to prevent their getting monopolies of busi- 



498 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 

ness. This act closed for the time being a long series of federal 
laws beginning with the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. 
It was followed in 1916 by the Child Labor Act (§ 371). 
Altogether about twenty different statutes had been passed 
for the better control of trusts of various kinds. 

397. The Philippines. — Another troublesome question was 
what to do with the Philippine Islands. Many of the Demo- 
crats had opposed their being acquired in 1898 (§361); and 
many Republican statesmen, including President Taft, felt that 
they ought not to be held indefinitely by the United States. 

From the first the Filipinos wanted to be independent. 
They settled down under the insular government because 
they could not help themselves. That government turned out 
to be very elihcient. It built schools and roads, improved the 
harbor of Manila, opened up steamer lines, and helped the 
people to sell their products. But the government was carried 
on by white people from the United States who had not the 
slightest idea of spending their lives in the islands. Hardly 
any business men, farmers, or workmen went over to make 
their homes in that country. 

In 1907 when the Filipinos were first allowed to elect mem- 
bers to an assembly, it was found that practically every 
member of that assembly was in favor of independence. They 
thought they could grow into a country like the empire of 
Japan. When Wilson became President he adopted the 
policy of giving the Filipinos a larger share in their own gov- 
ernment, so that they might show how far they were likely 
to govern themselves well. 

398. Mexico (1910-1916). — Among the Latin American 
neighbors of the United States, Mexico was thought to be one 
of the richest and most promising. The country included 
large stretches of good land for farming; the climate of the 
high table land on which the city of Mexico is situated was 
healthful and bracing. There were rich silv'er mines in various 
parts of the country, vast oil wells, good ports on the Atlantic 
and the Pacific, and a population of 15,000,000. 

Mexico, therefore, attracted business men with money from 
Europe and the United States, who built railroads, opened 




A sugar plantation in the Philippines 



500 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 



mines, set up factories, built oil refineries, and carried on a large 
business. It was a great shock to the foreign residents when 
a revolution broke out in Mexico in 19 lo. President Diaz, 
who had kept up his power for 32 years, partly by silencing his 
enemies (§ 352), was driven out, and Madero became president. 
A second revolution broke out and Madero was seized and 
imprisoned by his subordinate, General Huerta (1913), who 
made himself dictator; and Madero was soon after found dead. 




Landing United si.ii 



President Wilson declined to recognize Huerta as president, 
and a third revolution broke out in northern Mexico, under 
Carranza and Villa. The United States, as a protection to 
American citizens and interests, landed a few troops at Vera 
Cruz (1914). Huerta resigned; and our troops were with- 
drawn after about seven months. Meanwhile the revolution- 
ary leaders quarreled over the presidency and fell to fighting 
each other, ravaging theit- unhappy country which had seen 
no peace for years. Carranza gained the upper hand, and at 
last the United States, in agreement with the A. B. C. powers 
(§352). recognized him as chief executive (1915). Early in 
1916 Villa attacked a town on the north side of the boun- 
dary, and an American military expedition under General 
Pershing was sent into Mexico in pursuit. Carranza protested 
that he could curb Villa without assistance, and the American 
force was withdrawn early in 19 17. 



REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS 501 

399. Summary. — This chapter describes the action of 
pohtical parties and administrations from 1905 to 191 7. 

The second administration of Roosevelt and that of his suc- 
cessor Taft were devoted in good part to new laws on trusts and 
railroads. In 191 2, Roosevelt headed the Progressive party in 
the presidential election. Among three candidates, Woodrow 
Wilson was elected by the Democrats. 

President Wilson urged, and the Democrats enacted, a new 
tariff, an income tax, a federal reserve banking system, and a 
trade commission. Two amendments were added to the Con- 
stitution. Mexico went through a series of bloody revolutions. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Epoch Maps, no. 15. — Hart, Am. Hist. Maps, nos. 23-24. 

Histories. Beard, Contcmp. Hist., 317-331, 336-338. — Fish, De- 
velop, of Am. Nation, ch. xxix. — Hart, Monroe Doctrine, ch. xiv ; Obvious 
Orient. — Ogg, Nat. Progress, chs. ix-xiii. 

Sources. Am. Year Book, years 1910-1917. — James, Readings, § 105. 

— Roosevelt, Autobiography. — Woodrow Wilson, Selected Addresses and 
Public Papers ; War, Labor and Peace. 

Side Lights and Stories. Various weekly and monthly periodicals. 
Pictures. Collier's. — Independent. — Outlook. — World's Work, etc. 

— Cartoons in Literary Digest and Am. Review of Reviews. 

QUESTIONS 

(§ 391) I. How did Roosevelt regard the duties of the President? 
2. How was the Panama Canal constructed? 3 (For an essay). 
Roosevelt in the White House. 

(§ 392) 4. How did the election of 1908 come out? 5. What kind 
of President was Taft ? 

(§ 393) 6. Who were the " Insurgents "? the " Standpatters "? the 
"Progressive Republicans"? 7. How did the election of 1912 come 
out? 8 (For an essay). The Republican or the Progressive or the 
Democratic National Convention in 191 2. 

(§ 394) 9 (For an essay). Wilson in the White House, ic. What 
part did Bryan play in politics? 

(§ 395) II- What was the Underwood tariff? 12. What was the 
Sixteenth Amendment? the Seventeenth? 

(§ 396) 13. What is the Reserve Bank System? 14. What is the 
Trade Commission? 

(§ 307) 15- How were the Philippines improved? 

(§ 39S) 16 (For an essay). A visit to Mexico. 17. How did the 
Mexican revolution come about? 18. How did the United States act? 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 



AMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR (1914-1920) 

400. The World War and Neutrality. — In August, 1914, a 
terrible war broke out in Europe between the " Central 
Powers " of Germany and Austria on one side, and what was 
called the " Triple Entente " of Great Britain, France, and 
Russia on the other side. Several small European powers 
joined the Triple Entente, now commonly known as the 
" Allies," and Turkey joined the Central Powers. The next 

year Bulgaria also came 
in on that side, making 
a belt of four nations 
which reached from the 
North Sea to the Persian 
Gulf. Japan and Italy 
threw in their lot with 
the Allies. 

A few hours after the 
outbreak of war, the 
Germans invaded Bel- 
gium , contrary to solemn 
promises and treaties. 
This treachery enabled 
them to push into France and almost to take Paris, but they 
were driven back by the French and British in the great battle 
of the Marne ; and during almost all the rest of the war they 
occupied a fortified trench line running through western Bel- 
gium and northeastern France, from the sea to Switzerland. 

The attack on Belgium and the frightful treatment of 
Belgian and French men, women, and children by German 
soldiers, often under orders from their officers, shocked the 
American people ; but the war was very distant and few 
realized at first how it threatened the security of the United 

502 




A trench 



THE WORLD WAR AND NEUTRALITY 503 

States. Hence this country claimed the rights of neutrals 
as they had been asserted during the Napoleonic wars (§ 163). 
American trade at first continued with both groups of fight- 
ing powers ; but the British quickly secured command of 
the seas, and made it impossible to ship materials of war to 
Germany and Austria. 

The Germans before the war sent a band of secret agents to 
the United States to work up sympathy and to organize the 
German-Americans. They now loudly objected to our mu- 
nition trade with the Allies, although the great German Krupp 
factory had for years been selling immense quantities of muni- 
tions wherever there was war. Not content with protests, 
the German and Austrian ambassadors, consuls, and secret 
agents worked together in a campaign of . destruction of fac- 
tories, ships, and American lives, which was virtually a war 
on the United States. 

Great Britain now laid down new and strict rules of " con- 
traband " and " blockade," by which copper, rubber, pe- 
troleum, and many other goods were made contraband and 
cargoes intended for Germany were seized. The Germans on 
their side declared that all the seas around England were 
" a zone of war," in which they would capture either Allied 
or neutral ships. The only German vessels that could safely 
keep the seas were submarines which, contrary to right and 
mercy, sank many ships without giving the peaceful passengers 
and crews a chance to save their lives. On May 7, 191 5, a 
German submarine without any warning sank the great British 
steamer Lusitania, and thus took the lives of more than a 
thousand men, women, and children, including 114 Americans. 
This was very near an act of war ; and the government at 
Washington protested against such sinkings till Germany 
reluctantly promised to sink no more passenger ships without 
giving the people on board a chance to escape. 

401. Politics and Parties (1914-1917). — After 1912 
(§ 393), the Progressives lost votes, and by 1916 most of them 
had gone back to the Republican party. In June, 191 6, a 
Progressive convention was held, to try to influence the 
RepubHcans to nominate Roosevelt ; but the Republican 



S04 



AMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 



convention chose Charles E. Hughes, justice of the Supreme 
Court and former governor of New York. The Democrats 
renominated Woodrow Wilson. The principal issue before 
the country was which of the two candidates would make the 
stronger President. One of the party cries in favor of Wilson 
was " He kept us out of war ! " The election was the closest 
for many years, but the returns finally showed that President 
Wilson was elected by 276 electoral votes against 255 for 




How the states voted in the presidential election of 1916 

Hughes ; Wilson's popular plurality was about 600,000. As 
may be seen by the map, most of the Wilson vote came from 
the South and the West. 

The immense demand for food, machinery, and munitions 
to be sent over seas caused a great demand for labor, both 
of men and of women. Our exports rose to more than double 
the usual figures. The whole country felt rich. This proved 
to be a favorable time for the purchase from Denmark of 
her part of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies. There 
seemed some danger that otherwise Germany might annex 
them; therefore our government stepped in and paid 25 
million dollars for the islands, including the good harbor of 
St. Thomas. 



GERMAN AGGRESSION 505 

402. Reasons for War by the United States. — Gradually 
the dangers of German domination were brought home to the 
people of the United States. The great Red Cross Society 
helped England and France to save the Belgians from the 
threatened starvation into which the Germans plunged them 
by taking away their food and their industries ; and an Amer- 
ican, Herbert C. Hoover, superintended the distribution of 
food and other supplies to these people, thousands of whom, 
both men and women, were compelled to perform for the Ger- 
mans a forced labor which was little short of slavery. 

In 19 1 5 the Germans conquered Russian Poland, and in 
1 916 Roumania, which had had the spirit to join the Allies. 
Throughout the war the Germans continued their savage 
warfare on land. Poland, Serbia, Montenegro, Roumania, 
and parts of Russia were trodden down just like Belgium and 
northern France. Great numbers of innocent noncombatants 
were starved to death or driven from their homes to perish of 
cold. The Turks, acting on an understanding with the 
German officials in Turkey, deliberately massacred a million 
Armenians and Syrians, whose only fault was that they hoped 
for freedom through the Allies. The German nation seemed 
determined to sweep from their path any people who stood in 
the way of their desire for territory and power. 

On the last day of January, 191 7, Germany announced 
that ruthless submarine warfare would at once be resumed 




American submarine at the surface 



5o6 AMERICA IN THE WORT.D WAR 

against any ships bound to or from Alli(^ ports. Within a 
short time eight more American ships were sunk. The Ger- 
mans were sure that the Americans would not make war, or 
that if they did come in they were too fond of money to fight 
hard. 

The German emperor had already told the American am- 
bassador Gerard : " The United States had better look out. 
I will stand no nonsense from the United States after this 
war." The Germans were terribly disappointed because 
most of the German-Americans remained loyal to the country 
which they had sought in order to get away from Germany. 
The German government tried to raise the Mexicans against 
us. Any one could see that if autocratic Germany should 
overwhelm democratic England and France, the United States 
would be the next to suffer, and would be without any power- 
ful allies or friends. 

The American love for peace could hold out no longer. 
April 2, 191 7, President Wilson pointed out to Congress 
that there was no honorable way out of war ; and on April 
6 a resolution of Congress declared that Germany had brought 
on war with this country. 

403. Preparing for the Fray (19 17). — ^ While the United 
States was thus making up its mind that war was necessary for 
the safety of the world and the safety of democracy, few 
steps had been taken to prepare for the kind of war that was 
now being fought. In April, 191 7, the United States had not 
in service a single war aeroplane, or " tank " (armed tractor), 
or heavy field gun, or gas projector, or mine thrower, or 
depth bomb. Hardly an officer or soldier had actually seen 
modern fighting in the trenches, or the modern chase of sub- 
marines. The moment we were engaged in war, those de- 
ficiencies had to be made good. Party lines were forgotten ; 
Democrats and Republicans, employers and laborers alike 
supported the measures rapidly prepared by the executive 
departments, and pressed before Congress "by the President. 

Among them were draft acts for raising large armies ; an 
Espionage Act (June 15, 191 7), which included large powers 
over foreign trade; a Food Act (August to), under which 



PREPARING FOR THE FRAY 



507 




Airplanes in France ; the large une is for bombing, the small one for fighting 

the Food Administrator Herbert C. Hoover issued orders 
limiting the consumption of foodstuffs. In order to stim- 
ulate wheat growing, a minimum price for wheat was 
fixed at $2, and subsequently at $2.25 per bushel, and im- 
mense crops were raised. The act also included the right 
to fix the prices and distribution of coal, and if necessary to 
operate the mines. So much coal was needed for steamers 
and other government purposes, that the supply for general 
manufactures, railroads, and private buildings had to be 
cut down and there was much suffering during the hard winter 
of 1917-1918. Congress authorized the President to take 
possession of the railroads, which was clone by an order dated 
December 26, 1917. 

The Draft Act forbade the sale of liquor to soldiers in 
uniform. Subsequently Congress passed an act for general 
prohibition of intoxicating liquors, to hold from July i, 1919, 
till after the end of the war and of demobilization. Finally, 
a prohibition amendment to the Constitution (the Eighteenth) 
was submitted to the states and was adopted in January, 1919, 
to go into effect in one year. 

A War Revenue Act was passed, which included very high 
taxes on incomes and on " excess profits." Within two years 



5o8 



AIMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 



Lend_ 



twenty-two billion dollars was easily borrowed from the 
people, by the issue of Liberty bonds. 

404. The Situation in Europe. — The 

prime purpose of all this energy and ex- 
pense was to render immediate aid to the 
Allies, who were hard pushed by Germany. 
Before the United States entered the war, 
Russia overthrew its old imperial govern- 
ment, and four months later the nation 
collapsed. After going through several 
revolutions, Russia fell under the rule of 
the Bolsheviki, a group of Socialists who 
closely approached being anarchists. 
They made peace with Germany ; and 
thousands of German troops were thus 
released to fight on the western front. 
The desperate submarine warfare of the Germans was not 
enough to cripple the Allies. Vast stores of food, supplies, 
and munitions poured from the United States into Europe 
and enabled the Allies to hold their ground. Meanwhile in 




uy Bonds 
^j^«^UTMOST 



Liberty Loan poster 




Building wooden ships in a government shipyard 



the enormous camps built in the United States, soldiers and 
officers were trained and new branches of the service were 
introduced, such as aircraft and gas defense service. The 



THE SITUATION IN EUROPE 



509 



building of fleets of swift destroyers and submarine hunters 
and merchant ships was pushed on all the coasts of the United 
States. 

All over the world more nations joined in the war, which 
seemed likely to destroy all that men hold dear. Portugal 
came in, and Greece, after the deposition of its pro-German 
king. Far-off China and Siam declared war on Germany. 
Cuba, Panama, and several other American powers, includ- 
ing Brazil, took the same side as the United States. Except 
Holland, Switzerland, Spain, 
and the three Scandinavian 
countries, all Europe was at 
war. None of the lesser powers, 
however, had the ability to give 
much help to the gallant armies 
of Great Britain, France, and 
Italy on the western front. 

405. Winning the War. — 
The United States of America 
alone could turn the scales. 
June 26, 191 7, the first detach- 
ment of American troops landed 
in France under the command 
of General Pershing, the Ameri- 
can commander in chief. By 
great exertions and the aid of 
the French and British fleets, 
troops continued to pour across the seas, with food and muni- 
tions for themselves and supplies for the Allies. The first 
battle with the Germans on the front was a fight at Seiche- 
prey (April 20, 1918), in eastern France, where the Americans 
made good. 

The Germans realized that the United States was aroused 
and pouring men and resources into France. They therefore 
pulled themselves together for a final desperate effort. March 
21, 1 91 8, they started a terrific drive in northern France and 
broke through the allied defenses and by the end of May 
were a second time within striking distance of Paris. 




General Pershing 



5IO 



AMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 



Under the brilliant command of the French General Foch, 
the Allies held, aided by the Americans, who had their first 
big battle with the Germans at Chateau-Thierry (June). 
In July Foch attacked, and the Germans began to retreat. 




The Western Front 



In terrible battles at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne region the 
Americans showed themselves the equal in fighting cjualities 
to any troops in the world. The battle of the Argonne was 
the greatest which American troops ever fought. 

All the armies from the English Channel to the Adriatic 
Sea fought desperately, including as many of the two million 
Americans over seas as were sufficiently trained to go to 
the front. The Germans were driven back, giving ground 
every day, but the Americans lost about two hundred and 
fifty thousand killed and wounded. Seeing that the game 
was up, the Germans begged for peace, and November ii, 



WINNING THE WAR 51 1 

1918, signed an armistice which was a confession of absolute 
defeat by land and sea. 

Under the armistice the Germans withdrew their armies 
from foreign soil, surrendered their navy and vast quantities 
of guns, railroad cars, and other property, gave up Alsace- 
Lorraine, admitted Allied garrisons into western Germany, and 
agreed to cease from looting and outrage in the regions which 
they were evacuating. 

The day before the armistice the German emperor fled to 
Holland, and later signed an abdication. Bulgaria in the 



1 


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'••■.:^ 



General Pershing reviewing American soldiers in France 

meantime was conquered, Turkey was totally disabled, the 
Italians crushed the Austrian army which for more than a 
year had occupied a corner of northeastern Italy, and the 
Austro-Hungarian monarchy was overthrown. 

406. Cost of the War. — To make sure that the Germans 
should not again break loose, the armistice provided that the 
Rhine and neighboring territory should be occupied by the 
Allies. A few thousand American troops were therefore sent 
to German soil, and steps were swiftly taken to return the 
others. 

Never had the United States of. America put such a host 
into war. By volunteering and the selective draft 3,700,00c 
men were enlisted. 



512 AMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 

For its year and a half of war, the United States spent 
32 bilHon dollars, besides 10 billions loaned to the Allies. The 
total number of men engaged in the war by all nations on both 
sides was about 60 millions, of whom 8 millions were killed. 
The United States was engaged so short a time that the losses 
were small, — 116,000 deaths and 206,000 wounded. 

The money cost was far above 32 billions, for hundreds 
of thousands of young men gave up their business and left 
their famihes to defend their country ; and scores of thousands 
of young men and women served at the front in the Y. M. C. A., 
Red Cross, K. of C, Salvation Army, and other civilian serv- 
ice. At home, hundreds of thousands worked for the soldiers 
in the great national organizations, of which the Red Cross 
was the most important. Immense sums of money were 
raised and great national societies kept up the work of arous- 
ing the people and sending out patriotic literature. 

407. Efforts to Make Peace. — The armistice did not 
stop all the fighting, nor make permanent terms of peace. 
Russia was in the midst of civil war. The old aristocracy 
was smashed, the Czar killed, and violent Socialists, commonly 
called Bolshevists, intrenched themselves in power. Austria- 
Hungary was broken to pieces and some of the fragments 
began to fight each other. Turkey was crushed, and the 
Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, and Arabs all tried to gain their 
freedom. Two years after the nominal end of the war many 
of those people were still lighting. 

The German Empire was overthrown, and for days civil 
war raged in Berlin and other German cities. For a time it 
seemed likely that the "Spartacans" or " Reds " would take 
possession. In February, 1919, a republican government 
was set up, and later a new federal constitution was adopted, 
leaving out the emperor and all the former kings and petty 
sovereigns of the German states. Germany and her allies had 
stripped themselves of food and supplies in the desperate hope 
of winning the war ; and it took a long time to get started again. 

In southeastern Europe the conditions were just as bad. 
German-speaking Austria, including the city of Vienna, 
almost perished of hunger. Between Austria and Poland the 



EFFORTS TO MAKE PEACE 



513 



Czecho-Slovak Republic was formed out of Bohemia and other 
provinces of similar Slavic speech. In the south sprang up 
Jugoslavia, made up of Serbia, Croatia, and other Slav lands. 
The Itahans took Trent and Trieste and part of Albania 
and claimed Fiume, which was Hungarian before the war. 

To make peace in all this turmoil and amidst these conflict- 
ing claims was almost impossible. The United States took 
the lead in 19 16, when President Wilson suggested terms of 



1 


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A . Is--; , t 








> S 

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f'i 


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i 








1 


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First meeting of the Paris Peace Conference 



peace. January 8, 1918, he laid down " fourteen points " 
which he said were necessary for any peace that would stand. 
These included open covenants, openly arrived at ; the 
restoration of Belgium, northern France, and Serbia ; the 
independence of Poland ; the self-government of the peoples 
of Austria-Hungary, the Balkan states, and Turkey ; and a 
" League of Nations " to keep the peace after it was 
made. fr'.v.dL K- p^-J^ -^j ' - '-'-^*-«^ |j ' 

In January, 191 9, a conference was held in Paris of all the 
nations at war with Germany, and others which had merely 
broken off relations with Germany, to draw up a peace treaty. 
President Wilson was the head of the five commissioners of 
the United States. In the Peace Conference one of the first 
steps was to vote for secret negotiations, with occasional 



514 AISIERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 

public meetings. The Conference within a week adopted 
the idea of a League of Nations, and President Wilson took 
part in drawing up a covenant or constitution for such a 
League, which he strongly advocated on his return to the 
United States. 

The final treaty with Germany was drawn by the " Big 
Four," the President of the United States and the prime 
ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy (sometimes 
acting with the representative of Japan). June 2S the treaty, 
including the League, was signed by all the commissioners 
present except those of China. At the same time President 
Wilson agreed to a defensive treaty of alliance with France, 
which feared that Germany would recover and again attack. 

In the United States no treaty is binding unless ratified 
by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Little opposition appeared 
to the general treaty, but an attack was made on the League 
of Nations. In the country at large there was strong pressure, 
both for and against the League. The Senate proposed a 
set of amendments and " reservations " which would ex- 
cept the United States from some of the provisions of the 
League of Nations. Public sentiment was divided into three 
groups, — friends of the League, which was supported by the 
President ; the out-and-out opponents of the League ; and 
" reservationists." 

None of these three groups could command a two-thirds 
vote in the Senate. In the meantime the President was taken 
so ill as to be unable, during long intervals, to carry on public 
business. He announced, however, that the question must 
be settled by the election of 1920. The other four great 
powers (and nearly all the other powers concerned) ratified 
the treaty including the League, and, having thus established 
peace with Germany, proceeded to put the League into action 
without the United States. In May, 1920, a resolution passed 
Congress to declare the war with Germany at an end, leaving 
out the treaty, but it was vetoed by the President. 

408. Results of the War. — The war had serious results in 
the United States, for the war laws long continued in force. 
In the Congressional election of 1918 the Repubhcans secured 



RESULTS OF THE WAR 515 

a majority in both houses of Congress, and thereafter opposed 
some of the President's poHcies. Many of the great national 
boards, formed during the war of men who were not in 
public Ufe, such as the War Industries Board, were now abol- 
ished. Others, such as the Shipping Board, kept on. Laws 
were made in aid of the returned soldiers, by giving those 
who were disabled by the war a chance to learn a trade which 
would afford them a livelihood. Many of the states voted a 
money bonus to their soldiers and strong pressure was put on 
Congress to give money, or land, or both, for the same 
purpose. 

Trade and commerce were active, notwithstanding a rise 
of prices called " the high cost of living." Farm crops of 
every kind brought high prices, but it was difficult to find 
farm labor because high wages drew so many men into the 
trades. The labor organizations were strong and ordered 
numerous strikes, usually for higher wages, all over the 
country, particularly in the shipyards in Seattle, the steel 
works near Chicago, and the coal fields of the West. 

During and after the war a determined effort was made 
by a set of extreme Sociahsts to break up the government by 
force or by votes. Several leaders, or supposed leaders, of 
this movement were convicted and sent to prison. Some of 
these disturbers were aliens who had come over to destroy the 
government. Hundreds of them were gathered up and sent 
back to Europe as " undesirable aliens." In several states 
strikers were prosecuted, either on the ground that they were 
opposed to the government, or that they were interfering with 
transportation and the production of coal and other staples 
which were necessary to keep the community going. The 
country therefore approached the election of 1920 in the 
midst of confusion and trouble. 

409. Election of 1920. — In the Republican convention of 
1920 the leading candidates for President were General Wood 
and Governor Lowden of Illinois, but after a long contest 
the nomination went to Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio. 
After a still longer contest the Democrats nominated Governor 
James M. Cox of Ohio. Senator Harding was elected by a 



5i6 



AMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 



very large majority ; he was supported not only by persons 

wlio fa\'ored resers'a- 
tions in the League of 
Nations, but also by 
persons opposed to the 
League and persons 
who wished for any 
reason to express dis- 
approval of President 
Wilson's administra- 
tion and policies. The 
Republicans also se- 
cured a large majority 
in ])oth houses of Con- 
p;rcss. 

Tn this election for 
the first time women 
\oted in all the states 
on equal terms with 
men. This right was 
gi\-en them by the 
nineteentli amendment to the United States Constitution, 
proposed by Congress in 191 9 and ratified by three fourths of 
the states in August, 1920. 

410. Summary. — A great war broke out in 1914, when 
Germany and Austria attacked Russia and France, and Great 
Britain and many other countries were drawn in. The neu- 
trality of the United States was disturbed by the German 
occupation of Belgium, l:)y the destruction of American ships 
and lives by German submarines, especially by the loss of 
Americans on the steamer Lusitania. Neutral trade con- 
tinued, however, with the western Allies. 

In 19 1 6 President Wilson was reelected. He brought 
about the annexation of the Danish Virgin Islands. Mean- 
while the people of America gave money and food to the Bel- 
gians, French, and Serbians conquered by the Germans. 
Turkey joined the war and massacred many Armenians. It 
became apparent that the United States must go to war with 




Warren Gamaliel Harding 



SUMMARY AND REFERENCES 517 

Germany then, or later. The President, Congress, and the 
country agreed, and war was declared April 6, 191 7. 

The United States was unprepared for a great war, but 
Congress passed many acts for raising an army and the neces- 
sary funds, establishing government control of coal and wheat, 
and prohibiting the lic^uor traffic. 

Russia collapsed, but the United States raised an army of 
millions and in April, 191 8, began to take the field in France. 
The Germans were defeated, driven back, and compelled to 
ask for an armistice, which was granted November 11, 1918, 
and put an end to the fighting in the west. 

As soon as fighting stopped the American troops were 
speedily sent home. Out of 3,700,000 men enHsted, 322,000 
were killed, died from disease, etc., or were wounded. The 
war cost 32 billion dollars besides the services and sacrifices 
of civihans at the front and at home. 

Europe was so confused and broken up by the result of the 
war that it was impossible to stop the fighting in Central 
Europe. A Peace Conference was held in Paris in which 
President Wilson took the lead, especially urging the League 
of Nations, which was made a part of the peace treaty with 
Germany. In the Senate there was opposition to the League 
of Nations, and the treaty was not ratified. The President 
then appealed to the country to pass upon the question in the 
next presidential election. 

Many of the war measures lasted over and new laws had to 
be passed for the returning soldiers. Prices rose and the 
organized laborers asked for higher wages. An effort was 
made by enemies of the government to break it up by violence. 
The times were difficult. 

In the election of 1920 the Republicans secured a majority 
in Congress, and elected Warren G. Harding President. 

REFERENCES 

Maps. Harding, TT^?;- Time Maps. — ]\Iaps in the principal histories 
of the war ; see below : 

Histories. Ogg, Nat. Progress, chs. xviii-xxi. — New York Times 
Current History. — Simonds, Hist, of the World War. — Seymour,' 
Diplomatic Backgromtd. — Harpers' History of the War. — Reynolds, 



5i8 AMERICA IN THE WORLD WAR 

(Collier's) History of the War. — Chitwood, Immediate Causes. — Beck, 
Evidence in the Case. — Gauss, 117/ v We Went to War. 

Sources. Am. Year Book, years 1914-1920. — Robinson and West, 
For. Policy of W. Wilson. — W. Wilson, Addresses and Publ. Papers. — 
Hart and Lovejoy, Ilandhook of the War. — Hart, America at War. — 
Frothingham, Handbook of War Facts and Peace. — ^elsoti's Cyclopcedia 
(loose leaf). — Cyclopcedia Americana, articles on the war and diplo- 
macy. — Assoc, for Internat. Conciliation, publications (texts of docs.). 

Side Lights and Stories. Alan Seeger, Letters and Diary. — R. H. 
Davis, With the Allies. — Foxcroft, War Verse. — Com. Publ. Informa- 
tion, Battle Line of Democracy. — Huard, On the Field of Honor. — 
Roosevelt, Am. in the World War. — Cobb, Paths of Glory. — Kelly, 
What America Did. — Palmer, America in France. 

Pictures. Nao York Times Current History. — Collier's. — Inde- 
pendent. — Outlook. — World's Work, etc. — Cartoons in Literary Digest 
and Am. Review of Reviews. — Raemakers, Cartoon Hist, of the War. 



QUESTIONS 

(§ 400) I (For an essay). The usual rights of neutrals in war. 

2. The secret Gcrman-.\mcrican agitation in the United States. 

3. The sinking of the Liisitania. 

(§ 401) 4. The party conventions of 1916. 5, What made the 
United States prosperous during the war? 

(§ 402) 6 (For an essay). The American Red Cross in Europe. 
7. Why did the Turks hale the Armenians? 8. What were the reasons 
for the United States going to war? 

(§ 403) 9. What were the principal war acts of the United States? 
10 (For an essay). Government management of coal supply. 

(§404) II (For an essay). Why did Russia break down? 12. 
How was the army made ready? 13. What other nations took part 
in the war? 

(§ 405) 14 (For an essay). Experiences of troops crossing the sea. 
15. How did the Americans get into the Tight? 16. What were the 
terms of the armistice? 

(§ 406) 17. What were the number and losses of the Americans in 
the war? 18. What was the cost of the war? 19 (For an essay). 
Services of the American Red Cross. 

(§ 407) 20. Results of the war in Europe. 21. How was the treaty 
made with Germany? 22. Why was it not ratified by the United 
Slates? 

(§ 408) 23. Results of the war in the United Slates. 

(§ 409) 24. Who was elected President in 1920, and why? 25. 
What was the nineteenth amendment? 



APPENDIX A 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

(Agreed to, July 4, 1776) 

[From a facsimile of the original parchment] 

In Congress, July 4, 1776 

the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united 
states of america 

?Wi)cn in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate 
and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God 
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that 
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. — 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happi- 
ness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted 
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned. — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destruc- 
tive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, 
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such prin- 
ciples and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, 
will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed 
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath 
shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are suffer- 
able, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they 
are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them 
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off 
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. 
— Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is 
now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems 
of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a 
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object 
the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove 



11 DECLARATION OF INDEPE>a)ENCE 

this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. — He has refused his 
Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public 
good. — He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate 
and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly 
neglected to attend to them. — He has refused to pass other Laws for 
the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people 
would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right 
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. — He has called 
together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and 
distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole pur- 
pose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. — He has 
dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly 
firmness his in\'asions on the rights of the people. — He has refused for 
a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; 
whereby the Legislati\c powers, incapable of Annihilation, ha\'e re- 
turned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in 
the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and 
convulsions \vithin. — He has endeavoured to prevent the population 
of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturaliza- 
tion of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migra- 
tions hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of 
Lands. — He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing 
his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciarj- powers. — He has made 
Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and 
the amount and payment of their salaries. — He has erected a multi- 
tude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our 
people, and eat out their substance. — He has kept among us, in times 
of peace. Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. — 
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to 
the Civil power. — He has combined with others to subject us to a 
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our 
laws; gi\ing his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: — For 
quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: — For protecting 
them, by a mock Tdal, from ])unishment for any Murders which they 
should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: — For cutting off 
our Trade with all parts of the world : — For imposing Ta.\es on us 
without our Consent: — For depri\ing us in many cases, of the benefits 
of Trial by Jury: — For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for 
pretended offences: — For abolishing the free System of F^nglish Laws 
in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary- go\'ern- 
ment, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an ex- 
ample and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE iii 

these Colonies: — For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most 
valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Govern- 
ments: — For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring them- 
selves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. — 
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Pro- 
tection and waging War against us. — He has plundered our seas, 
ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our 
people. — • He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mer- 
cenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, 
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paral- 
leled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of 
a civilized nation. — He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken 
Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to be- 
come the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall them- 
selves by their Hands. — He has excited domestic insurrections 
amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our 
frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, 
is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In 
every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the 
most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only 
by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by 
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free 
people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by 
their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. 
We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and 
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and mag- 
nanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common 
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably inter- 
rupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf 
to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, 
acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold 
them, as we hold the rest of mankind. Enemies in War, in Peace 
Friends. — 
Sraae, tljereforc, the Representatives of the unftcti States of Smerfca, 
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of 
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by 
Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and 
declare. That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, 
jftee antJ finTJepcntient States; that they are Absolved from all Alle- 
giance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between 
them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved ; 
and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy 



IV 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to 
do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right 
do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on 
the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other 
our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. 

JOHN HANCOCK. 

[Signatures of representatives of the thirteen States, afifixed under 
date of August 2, 1776.] 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
JosiAii Bartlett, 
William Whipple, 
Matthew Thornton. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 

RHODE ISLAND. 
Stephen Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

CONNECTICUT. 
Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntinc;ton, 
William Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

NEW YORK. 
William Floyd, 
Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 

NEW JERSEY. 
Richard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 
Francis Hopkinson, • 
John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 
Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 
George Clymer, 



James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Ross. 

DELAWARE. 
C.^isAR Rodney, 
George Read, 
Thomas M'Kean. 

MARYLAND. 

Samuel Chase, 
William Paca, 
Thomas Stone, 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 

VIRGINIA. 

George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Nelson, Jun., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 
William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 
Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Heyward, Jun., 
Thomas Lynch, Jun., 
Arthur Middleton. 

GEORGIA. 
Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
George Walton. 



APPENDIX B 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I 

SECTION I. — All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested 
in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

SECTION II. — Clause i. The House of Representatives shall be 
composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the 
several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifica- 
tions requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State 
Legislature. 

Clause 2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have 
attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen 
of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant 
of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

Clause 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
among the several States which may be included within this Union, 
according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to 
service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three 
fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made with- 
in three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, 
and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they 
shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed 
one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one 
representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of 
New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three; Massachusetts, eight; 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one; Connecticut, five; 
New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Delaware, one; 
Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South Carolina, 
five; and Georgia, three. 

Clause 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any 



vi CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

State, the executive autliority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies. 

Clause 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker 
and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

SECTION III. — Clause i. The Senate of the United States shall 
be composed of two senators from each State, [chosen by the Legisla- 
ture thereof,]' for six years; and each senator. shall have one vote. 

Clause 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in conse- 
quence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be 
into three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be 
vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the 
expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class, at the expiration of 
the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second >ear; [and 
if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of 
the Legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary 
appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall 
then fill such vacancies.] ' 

CL.A.USE 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained 
to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State 
for which he shall be chosen. 

Clause 4. The Vice President of the United States shall be presi- 
dent of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equal!> 
divided. 

Clause 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a 
president pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he 
shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 

Clause 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach- 
ments; when sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirma- 
tion. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief 
Justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the con- 
currence of two thirds of the members present. 

Clause 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend fur- 
ther than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy 
any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the 
party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, 
trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. 

SECTION IV. — Clause i . The times, places, and manner of hold- 
ing elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each 
State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by 
law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing 
senators. 

* Superseded by the Seventeenth Ameudment. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES Vii 

Clause 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, 
and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they 
shall by law appoint a different day. 

SECTION V. — Clause i. Each house shall be the judge of the 
elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority 
of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number 
may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the 
attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penal- 
ties, as each house may provide. 

Clause 2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, 
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence 
of two thirds, expel a member. 

Clause 3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and 
from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in 
their judgment require secrecy, and the yeas and nays of the members 
of either house on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those 
present, be entered on the journal. 

Clause 4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, 
without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor 
to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

SECTION VI. — Clause i. The senators and representatives shall 
receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and 
paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, 
except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from 
arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, 
and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or 
debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

Clause 2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for 
which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the author- 
ity of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emolu- 
ments whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no 
person holding any ofifice under the United States shall be a member of 
either house during his continuance in ofifice. 

SECTION VII. — Clause i. All bills for raising revenue shall 
originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose 
or concur with amendments, as on other bills. 

Clause 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to 
the President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but 
if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it 
shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their 
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, 
two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, 



Vlii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall like- 
wise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that house, it 
shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall 
be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting 
for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house 
resi^ectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within 
ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall ha\e been presented to him, 
the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the 
Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall 
not be a law. 

Clause 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concur- 
rence of the Senate and House of Rcpresentati\es may be necessary 
(except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the Presi- 
dent of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall 
be approved by him, or being disapproved b>' him, shall be repassed by 
two thirds of the Senate and House of Representati\-es, according to the 
rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

SECTION VIII. — Clause i. The Congress shall have power to 
lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and 
provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United 
States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform through- 
out the United States; 

Clause 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

Clause 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and anion 3 
the several States, and with the Indian tribes; 

Clause 4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and 
uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United 
States; 

Clause 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

Clause 6. To i)rovide for the punishment of counterfeiting the 
securities and current coin of the United States; 

Clause 7. To establish post offices and post roads; 

Clause 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by 
securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right 
to their respective writings and discoveries; 

Clause 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

Clause 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed 
on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

Clause ii. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, 
and make rules concerning captures on land and water; 

Clause 12. To rai.se and support armies, but no appropriation of 
money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES ix 

Clause 13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

Clause 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of 
the land and naval forces; 

Clause 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 

Clause 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in 
the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively 
the appointment of the ofificers, and the authority of training the 
militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 

Clause 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatso- 
ever over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by 
cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the 
seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like author- 
ity over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the 
State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings; —And 

Clause 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or 
in any department or ofificer thereof. 

SECTION IX. — Clause i. The migration or importation of such 
persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, 
shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand 
eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such 
importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

Clause 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
safety may require it. 

Clause 3. No bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be passed. 

Clause 4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in 
proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be 
taken. 

Clause 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from 
any State. 

Clause 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of com- 
merce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another; nor 
shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or 
pay duties in another. 

Clause 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in con- 
sequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and 
account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be 
published from time to time. 



X CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Clause 8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United 
States: And no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, 
shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, 
emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, 
or foreign state. 

SECTION X. — Clause i. No State shall enter into any treaty, 
alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin 
money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a 
tender in jKiyment of debts; ])ass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto 
law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of 
nobility. 

Clause 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay 
any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be abso- 
lutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce 
of all duties and impost, laid by any State on imports or exports, sliall 
be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws 
shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

Clause 3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any 
duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace, enter 
into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign 
power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent 
danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II 

SECTION I. — Clause i. The executive power shall be vested in 
a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office 
during the term of four years, and, together with the \'ice President, 
chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: 

Clause 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legisla- 
ture thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number 
of senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the 
Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an office 
of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

Clause 3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the 
electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day 
shall be the same throughout the United States. 

Clause 4. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of 
the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall 
be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible 
to that office who shall not ha\'e attained to the age of thirty-five >ears, 
and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

Clause 5. In case of the removal of the President from office, or 
of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties 
of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xi 

Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, 
or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what 
officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall act accordingly 
until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

Clause 6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his ser- 
vices a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished 
during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not 
receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, 
or any of them. 

Clause 7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall 
take the following oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or 
affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United 
States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend 
the Constitution of the United States." 

SECTION II. — Clause i. The President shall be commander in 
chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of 
the several States, when called into the actual service of the United 
States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer 
in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the 
duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant re- 
prieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in 
cases of impeachment. 

Clause 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators 
present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the 
United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, 
and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law 
vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the 
President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

Clause 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies 
that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commis- 
sions which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

SECTION III. — He shall from time to time give to the Congress 
information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consid- 
eration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he 
may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of 
them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the 
time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall 
think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; 
he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall com- 
mission all the officers of the United States. 



xii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

SECTION IV. — The President, Vice President, and all civil officers 
of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, 
and conviction of, treason, briber^', or other high crimes and misde- 
meanors. 

ARTICLE m 

SECTION I. — The judicial power of the United States shall be 
vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Con- 
gress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both 
of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good 
behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compen- 
sation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 

SECTION II. — Clause i. The judicial power shall extend to all 
cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the 
United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their 
authority; — to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, 
and consuls; — to all cases of admirality and maritime jurisdiction; — 
to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; — to con- 
troversies between two or more States; — between a State and citizens 
of another State; — between citizens of different States; — between 
citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different 
States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, 
citizens, or subjects. 

Clause 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme 
Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before 
mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both 
as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as 
the Congress shall make. 

Clause 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, 
shall be by jury, and such trials shall be held in the State where the said 
crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any 
State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by 
law have directed. 

SECTION III. — Clause i. Treason against the I'nitcd States 
shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their 
enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 

Clause 2. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the 
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in 
open court. 

Clause 3. The Congress shall have power to declare the punish- 
ment of treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of 
blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xiii 

ARTICLE IV 

SECTION I. — Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to 
the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State; 
and the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which 
such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect 
thereof. 

SECTION II. — Clause i. The citizens of each State shall be en- 
titled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

Clause 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or 
other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, 
shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he 
fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of 
the crime. 

Clause 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, 
but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service 
or labor may be due. 

SECTION III. — Clause i. New States may be admitted by the 
Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected 
within the j urisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the 
junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent 
of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

Clause 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make 
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other 
property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitu- 
tion shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United 
States, or of any particular State. 

SECTION IV. — The United States shall guarantee to every State 
in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each 
of them against invasion, and on application of the Legislature, or of 
the executive (when the Legislature can not be convened) against 
domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 
application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall 
call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall 
be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by 
conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amend- 



xiv CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

mcnt which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the 
ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, without its consent, 
shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI 

Clause i. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, be- 
fore the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this Constitution, as under the confederation. 

Clause 2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be 
the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be 
bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

Clause 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and 
the members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and 
judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, 
shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but 
no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any oflSce 
or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE Vn 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratify- 
ing the same. 

Done in convention, by the unanimous consent of the States 
present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, 
and of the independence of the United States of America 
the twelfth. 
In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
President, and Deputy from Virginia. 

(Signed also by thirty-eight other deputies, from twelve States.) 

AMENDMENTS 

To the Constitution of the United States, Ratified according to the Pro- 
visions of the Fifth Article of the Foregoing Constitution 

ARTICLE I. — Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- 
ment of religion, or pr()hi])iting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peace- 



AMENDMENTS XV 

ably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of 
grievances. 

ARTICLE II. — A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms 
shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III. — No soldiers shall, in time of peace, be quartered in 
any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in 
a manner to be prescribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV. — The right of the people to be secure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and 
seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon 
probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly de- 
scribing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V. — No person shall be held to answer for a capital or 
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a 
grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
mUitia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger ; nor 
shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in 
jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to 
be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
erty, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken 
for public use, without just compensation. 

ARTICLE VI. — In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall 
enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the 
State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which 
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be in- 
formed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with 
the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining 
witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his 
defense. 

ARTICLE VII. — In suits at common law, where the value in con- 
troversy shaU exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be 
preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in 
any court of the United States than according to the rules of common 
law. 

ARTICLE \TII. — Excessive bail shall not be required, nor exces- 
sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX. — The enumeration in the Constitution of certain 
rights shaU not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by 
the people. 

ARTICLE X. — The powers not delegated to the United States by 
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 
States respectively, or to the people. 



xvi AMENDMENTS 

ARTICLE XI. — The judicial power of the United States shall not 
be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or 
prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, 
or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 

ARTICLE XII. — The electors shall meet in their respective States, 
and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at 
least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they 
shall name in their ballots the persons voted for as President, and in 
distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President ; and they shall 
make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all 
persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, 
which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat 
of the government of the United States, directed to the president of 
the Senate ; — the president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the 
votes shall then be counted ; — the person having the greatest number 
of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a 
majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers 
not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House 
of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. 
But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the 
representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this 
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the 
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President when- 
ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day 
of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, 
as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the 
President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice 
President, shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a ma- 
jority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall 
choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of 
two thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole 
number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally 
ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice 
President of the United States. 

ARTICLE XIII. — Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the person shall 
have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any 
place subject to their jurisdiction. — Skction. 2 Congress shall have 
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 



AMENDMENTS XVU 

ARTICLE XIV. — Section i. All persons born or naturalized in 
the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of 
the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall 
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immuni- 
ties of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any 
person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor 
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the 
laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several 
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole 
number of persons in each State excluding Indians not taxed. But 
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for 
President and Vice President of the United States, representatives in 
Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members 
of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of 
such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United 
States, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or 
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the 
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the 
whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Con- 
gress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, 
civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, 
having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an 
officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, 
or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or 
rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies 
thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each house, 
remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, 
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and 
bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not 
be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall 
assume to pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or 
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emanci- 
pation of any slave ; but all such debts, obhgations, and claims shall be 
held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro- 
priate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XV. — Section i. The right of citizens of the United 
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or 
by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 



xviii AMENDMENTS 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE X\ I. — The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportion- 
ment among the several States, and without regard to any census or 
enumeration. 

ARTICLE XVH. — The Senate of the United States shall be com- 
posed of two senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, 
for sLx years; and each senator shall have one vote. The electors in 
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the 
most numerous branch of the State Legislatures. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any Slate in the 
Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election 
to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the Legislature of any State may 
empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until 
the people fill the vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct. 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to afi^ect the election or 
term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the 
Constitution. 

ARTICLE XVIII. 1 — Section i. After one year from the ratifica- 
tion of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxi- 
cating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation 
thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdic- 
tion thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have con- 
current power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the 
several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from 
the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 

ARTICLE XIX. — Section i. The right of citizens of the United 
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or 
by any State on account of sex. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, 
to enforce the provisions of this article. 

^ Ratified in Januar>-, 1919. 



APPENDIX C — TABLE OF THE STATES 













NUMBER 










CENSUS 


OF REPRE- 






ADMISSION 


PREVIOUS STATUS 


OF 

1920 


SENTA- 
TIVES 
I913-1923 


22 


Alabama 


Dec. 14, 1819 


Territory 


2,347.29s 


10 


48 


Arizona 


Feb. 14, 1912 


Territory 


333,273 


I 


25 


Arkansas 


June 15, 1836 


Territory 


1,750,995 


7 


31 


California 


Sept. 9, 1850 


Unorganized territory 


3,426,536 


II 


38 


Colorado 


Aug. I, 1876 


Territory 


939,376 


4 


5 


Connecticut 




Original state 


1,380,58s 


S 


I 


Delaware 




Original state 


223,003 


1 


27 


Florida 


March 3, 1845 


Territory 


966,296 


4 


4 


Georgia 
Idaho 




Original state 


2,894,683 


12 


43 


July 3, 1890 


Territory 


431,826 


2 


21 


Illinois 


Dec. 3, 1818 


Part of Illinois Territory 


6,485,098 


27 


19 


Indiana 


Dec. II, 1816 


Indiana Territory and part 












of Michigan Territory 


2,930,544 


13 


29 


Iowa 


Dec. 28, 1846 


Part of Iowa Territory 


2,403,630 


II 


34 


Kansas 


Jan. 29, 1861 


Part of Kansas Territory 


1,769,257 


8 


15 


Kentucky 


June I, 1792 


Part of Virginia 


2,416,013 


II 


18 


Louisiana 


April 30, 1812 


Territory of Orleans 


1,797,798 


8 


23 


Maine 


March 15, 1820 


Part of Massachusetts 


768,014 


4 


7 


Maryland 




Original state 


1.449,610 


6 


6 


Massachusetts 




Original state 


3,852.356 


16 


26 


Michigan 


June 26, 1837 


Part of Michigan Territory 


3,667,222 


13 


32 


Minnesota 


May II, 1858 


Part of Minnesota Territory 


2,386,371 


10 


20 


Mississippi 


Dec. 10, 1817 


Territory 


1,789,384 


8 


24 


Missouri 


Aug. 10, 1821 


Part of Missouri Territory 


3,403,547 


16 


41 


Montana 


Nov. 8, 1889 


Territory 


547,593 


2 


37 


Nebraska 


March i, 1867 


Territory 


1,295,502 


6 


36 


Nevada 


Oct. 31, 1864 


Territory 


77,407 


I 


9 
3 


New Hampshire 




Original state 


443,083 


2 


New Jersey 




Original state 


3,155,374 


12 


47 


New Mexico 


Jan. 6, 1912 


Territory 


360,247 


I 


II 


New York 




Original state 


10,384,144 


43 


12 


North Carolina 
North Dakota 




Original state 

Part of Dakota Territory 


2,556,486 
645.730 


10 


39 


Nov. 2, 1889 


3 


17 


Ohio 


Feb. 19, 1803 


Part of Northwest Territory 


5,759,368 


22 


46 


Oklahoma 


Nov. 16, 1907 


Indian Territory and Okla- 












homa Territory 


2,027,564 


8 


33 


Oregon 


Feb. 14, 1859 


Part of Oregon Territory 


783,389 


3 


2 


Pennsylvania 




Original state 


8,720,159 

604,397 

1,683,662 


36 


13 


Rhode Island 




Original state 


3 


8 


South Carolina 




Original state 


7 


40 


South Dakota 


Nov. 2, 1889 


Part of Dakota Territory 


635,839 


3 


16 


Tennessee 


June I, 1796 


Territory South of the Ohio 


2,337,459 


10 


28 


Texas 


Dec. 29, 1845 


Independent state 


4,661,027 


18 


45 


Utah 


Jan. 4, 1896 


Territory 


449.446 


2 


14 


Vermont 


March 4, 1791 


Semi-independent state 


352,421 


2 


10 


Virginia 




Original state 


2,306,361 


10 


42 


Washington 


Nov. II, 1889 


Territory 


1,356,316 


5 


35 


West Virginia 


June 19, 1863 


Part of Virginia 


1,463,610 


6 


30 


Wisconsin 


May 29, 1848 


Part of Wisconsin Territory 


2,631,839 


II 


44 


Wyoming 


July 10, 1890 


Territory 


194,402 


I 



APPENDIX D — TABLP: OF THE PRESIDENTS 



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APPENDIX E 
LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS 

(This list Is selected from the titles referred to in the chapter references 
and will be found convenient for ordering books for school and public 
libraries.) 

Adams, Andy, Log of a Cowhoy. (Bost., 1903.) 

Adams, Henry, History of the United States, 1801-1817. (9 vols., N. Y., 
1889-91.) — John Randolph. (Amer. Statesmen, Bost., 1900.) 

Addams, Jane, Twenty Years at Hull House. (N. Y., 1910.) 

Allen, G. W., Our Naval War with France. (Bost., 1909.) 

Altsheler, J. A., Before the Dawn. (N. Y., 1903.) — Herald of the West. 
(N. Y., 1898.) —La5^ of the Chiefs. (N. Y., 1909.) 

Andrews, C. M., Colonial Period. (Home Univ. Lib., N. Y., 1912.) — 
Colonial Self -Government. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1904.) 

Antin, Mary, Promised Land. (Bost., 1912.) 

Atkinson, A. M., European Beginnings of American History. (Bost., 1912.) 

Avery, E. M., History of the United States and Its People. (7 vols., Cleve- 
land, 1904-10.) 

Babcock, K. C, Rise of American Nationality. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 
1906.) 

Barnes, James, For King or Country. (N. Y., 1895.) — Loyal Traitor. 
(N. Y., 1897.) 

Bassett, J. S., Short History of the United States. (N. Y., 1913.) 

Beard, C. A., Contemporary American History, iSyy-igi^- (N. Y., 1914.) 

— Readings in American Government and Politics. (Rev. ed., N. Y., 

^913-) 
Becker, C. L., Beginnings of the American People. (Riverside Hist., Bost. 

1915.) 
Bindloss, Harold, Cattle-Baron's Daughter. (N. Y., 1906.) 
Bogart, E. L., Economic History of the United States. (2d ed., N. Y., 

1912.) 
Brady, C. T., For the Freedom of the Sea. . (N. Y., 1899.) — Midshipman in 

the Pacific. (N. Y., 1904.) — On the Old Kearsarge. (N. Y., 1909.) 
Brooks, E. S., In Leisler's Times. (Bost., 1886.) — Son of the Revolution. 

(Bost., 1898.) — Story of our War with Spain. (Bost., 1899.) 
Brooks, Noah, Boy Settlers. (N. Y., 1891.) — Washington in Lincoln's 

Time. (N. Y., 1895.) 
Brown, W. G., Stephen Arnold Douglas. (Riverside Biog., Bost., 1902.) 
Bruce, H. A., Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road. (N. Y., 1910.) 
Butterworth, Hezekiah, In the Boyhood of Lincoln. (N. Y., 1892.) 
Cable, G. W., The Grandissimes. (N. Y., 1899.) — Kincaid's Battery. 

(N. Y., 1908.) — OW Creole Days. (N. Y., 1897.) — Strange True 

Stories of Louisiana. (N. Y., 1889.) 
Chadwick, F. E., Causes of the Civil War. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1906.) 
Channing, Edward, History of the United States. (4 vols., N. Y., 1905-.) 

— Jeffersonian System. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1906.) 
Cheyney, E. P., European Background. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1904.) 



xxii LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS 

Chittenden, H. M., American Fur Trade in the Far West. (3 vols., N. Y., 

1902.) 
Churchill, Winston, The Crisis. (N. Y., 1902.) — The Crossing. (N. Y., 

1904.) 
Clemens, S. L. (Mark Twain), Advejitures of Huckleberry Finn. (N. Y., 

1885, later eds.) — Adventures of Tom Sawyer. (Hartford, 1876, 

later eds.) — Life on the Mississip/n. (Bost., 1883, later eds.) 
Conian, Katharine, Industrial History of the United States. (Rev. ed., 

N. Y., 1910.) 
Conant, C. A., Alexander Hamilton. (Riverside Biog., Bost., 1901.) 
Cooke, J. E., Fairfax. (N. Y., iSbS.) -- Leather and Silk. (N. Y., 1854.) 

— Mohun. (N. Y., 1896.) — 5/oric5 of the Old Dominion. (N. Y., 
1879.) — Virginia. (N. Y., 1903.) 

Cooper, J. F., Last of the Mohicans. (Phila., 1826, later eds.) — Mer- 
cedes of Castile. (N. Y., 1841, later eds.) — The Pilot. (N. Y., 1823, 
later eds.) — H/e Pioneers. (N. Y., 1823, later eds.) — Wept of 
Wish-Ton-Wish. (Phila., 1829, later eds.) 
Craddock, C. E., Story of Old Fort Loudon. (N. Y., 1899.) — Young 

Mountaineers. (Best., 1898.) 
Dana, R. H., Two Years before the Mast. (N. Y., 1840, later eds.) 
Dewey, D. R., National Problems. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1907.) 
Dodd, W. E., Expansion and Conilict. (Riverside Hist., Bost., 1915.) 
Dunn, J. P., True Indian Stories. (Indianapolis, 1908.) 
Dunning, W. A., Reconstruction. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1907.) 
ICarle, A. M , Child Life in Colonial Days. (N. Y., 1899.) — Colonial 
Dames and Goodwives. (Bost., 1895.) — Curious Punishments of 
Bygone Days. (N. Y., 1896.) — Home Life in Colonial Days. (N. Y., 
1898.) — Sabbath in Puritan New England. (N. Y., 1891.) — Stage- 
Coach and Tavern Days. (N. Y., 1900.) — Two Centuries of Costume 
in America. (2 vols., N. Y., 1903.) 
Eggleston, Edward, Circuit Rider. (N. Y., 1874.) — The Graysons. (N. 
Y., 1888.) — //oo5J>r Schoolboy. (N. Y., iSS^,.) — Hoosier School- 
master. {CWic, 1871.) — Roxy. (N. Y., 1878.) 
Eggleston, G. C, Life in the Eighteenth Century. (N. Y., 1905.) — Master 
of Warlock. (Bost., 1903.) — Our First Century. (N. Y., 1905.) 

— Rebel's Recollections. (N. Y., 1905.) — Southern Soldier Stories. 
(N. Y., 1898.) — T'iUO Gentlemen of Virginia. (Bost., 1908.) 

Elson, H. W., Side Lights on American History. (2 vols., N. Y., 1899-1900, 
also 2 vols, in i.) 

Fish, C. R., Development of American Nationality. (N. Y., 1913) 

Fiske, John, American RrMlution. (2 vols., Bost., 1891.) — beginnings of 
New England. (Bost., 1889.) — Critical Period of American History. 
(Bost., 1888.) — Discovery of .America. (2 vols., Bost., 1892.) — Dutch 
and Quaker Colonies. (2 vols., Bost., 1899.) — Mississippi Valley in 
the Civil War. (Bost., 1900.) — New France and New England. (Bost., 
1902.) — Old Virginia and Her Neighbors. (2 vols., Bost., 1897.) 

Ford, P. L., The True George Washington. (Phila., 1902.) 

Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography. (Many eds.) 

Garrison, G. P., Westward Extension. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1906.) 

Gordy, W. F., American Leaders and Heroes. (N. Y., 1909-) 

Greene, E. B., Provincial America. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1905.) 

Hapgood, Norman. Abraham Lincoln. (N. Y., 1899.) 

Harding, S. B., and Clapp, J. M., eds.. Select Orations Illustrating American 
Political History. (N. Y., 1909.) 

Harland, Marion, His Great Self. (Phila., 1901.) — When Grandmamma 
was New. (Bost., 1899.) 



LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS xxlil 

Harris, J. C, On the Plantation. (N. Y., 1892.) — ■ Uncle Remus, His Songs 

and His Sayings. (N. Y., 1880.) 
Hart, A. B., Actual Government. (Amer. Citizen Sen, 3d ed., N. Y., 1908.) 

— American Nation, a History; from Original Sources by Associated 
Scholars, (ed., 28 vols., N. Y., 1904-17.) — - American History Told by 
Contemporaries. (4 vols., 1897-1901.) — American Patriots and States- 
men. (Collier Classics, ed., 5 vols., N. Y., 1916.) — Epoch Maps Il- 
lustrating American History. (4th ed., N. Y., 1910.) — Formation of 
the Union. (Epochs of Amer. Hist., rev. ed., N. Y., 1915.) — - Foun- 
dations of American Foreign Policy. (N. Y., 1901.) — -Monroe Doc- 
trine: an Interpretation. (Bost., 1916.) — National Ideals Histori- 
cally Traced. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1907.) — Obvious Orient. (N. 
Y., 191 1.) — Salmon Portland Chase. (Amer. Statesmen, Bost., 1900.) 

— Slavery and Abolition. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1906.) — Source 
Book of American History, (ed., N. Y., 1900.) — Source Readers in 
American History, (ed., 4 vols., N. Y., 1902-03.) — Southern South. 
(N. Y., 1910.) — War in Europe. (N. Y., 1914.) — Wall Maps of 
American History. (Chic, 1918.) 

Hart, A. B., and Channing, Edward, eds., American History Leaflets. 

(36 nos., N. Y., 1892-1910.) 
Haworth, P. L., Reconstruction and Union, 1865-1912. (Home Univ. Lib., 

N. Y., 1912.) 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Grandfather's Chair. (Bost., 1840, later eds.) 

— My Kinsman, Major Molyneux. (In Snow Image, Bost., 1852, 
later eds.) — Twice-Told Tales. (2 vols., Bost., 1851, later eds.) 

Higginson, T. W., Book of American Explorers. (Bost., 1877.) 

Hinsdale, B. A., Old Northwest. (2 vols., N. Y., 1888.) 

Hosmer, J. K., Appeal to Arms. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1907.) — Outcome 

of the Civil War. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1907.) 
Howard, G. E., Preliminaries of the Revolution. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 

1905-) 

Howells, W. D., Boy's Toivn. (N. Y., 1890.) 

James, J. A., ed.. Readings in American History. (N. Y., 1914.) 

Johnson, Allen, Union and Democracy. (Riverside Hist., Bost., 1915.) 

Johnston, Alexander, and Woodburn, J. A., eds., American Orations: 
Studies in American Political History. (4 vols., N. Y., 1896-97.) 

Johnston, Mary, Audrey. (Bost., 1902.) — Lewis Rand. (Bost., 
1908.) 

King, Charles, Campaigning with Crook. (N. Y., 1890.) • — ■ Captured. 
(N. Y., 1906.) — Colonel's Daughter. (Phila., 1883.) — IroJi Brigade. 
(N. Y., 1902.) — Tonio. (N. Y., 1906.) 

Latane, J. H., America as a World Power, iSgy-igoy. (Amer. Nation, 
N. Y., 1907.) 

Laut, A. C, Story of the Trapper. (N. Y., 1902.) 

Linderman, F. B., Indian Why Stories. (N. Y., 191 5.) 

Lodge, H. C, Alexander Hamilton. (Amer. Statesmen, Bost., 1900.) — 
Daniel Webster. (Amer. Statesmen, Bost., 1900.) — George Washing- 
ton. (Amer. Statesmen, 2 vols., Bost., 1900.) — Story of the Revo- 
lution. (2 vols., N. Y., 1898; also in i vol., 1903.) 

MacDonald, William, ed.. Documentary Source Book of American History. 
(Enlarged ed., N. Y., 1916.) — From Jefferson to Lincoln. (Home 
Univ. Lib., N. Y., 1913.) — Jacksonian Democracy. (Amer. Nation, 
N. Y., 1906.) 

McKeever, W. A., Farm Boys and Girls. (N. Y., 1912.) 

McLaughlin, A. C, Confederation and Constitution. (Amer. Nation, 
N. Y., 1905.) 



xxiv LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS 

Merwin, H. C, Aaron Burr. (Beacon Biog., Bost., 1899.) — Thomas 

Jefferson. (Riverside Biog., Bost., 1901.) 
Moore, J. R. H., Industrial History of the American People. (N. Y., 1913.) 
Muir, John, Story of my Boyhood and Youth. (Bost., 1913.) 
Old South Leaflets. (General series, 207 nos. pub., Bost., 1888-.) 
Page, T. N., Amon^ the Camps. (N. Y., 1891.) —In Ole Virginia. (N. 

Y., igio.)— Red Rock. (N. Y., 1898.) — Tti-o Little Confederates. 

(N. Y., 1888.) 
Parkman, Francis, Conspiracy of Pont iac. (Rev. ed., 2 vols., Bost., 1870.) 

— Count Fronlenac and New France under Louis XIV. (Bost., 1877.) 

— Half-Century of Conflict. (2 vols., Best., 1892.) — Jesuits in North 
America. (Bost., 1867.) — La Salle and the Discovery of the Great 
West. (Rev. ed., Bost., 1887.) — Uld Regime in Canada. (Rev. ed., 
Bost., 1895.) — Pioneers of France in the New World. (Bost., 1887.) 

Paxson, F. L., American Civil War. (Home Univ. Lib., N. Y., 191 1.) — 
Last .American Frontier. (N. Y., 1910.) — The New Nation. (River- 
side Hist., Bost., 1915.) 

Price, L. L., Lads and Lassies of Other Days. (Bost., 1906.) 

Riis, J. A., Children of the Poor. (N. Y., 1892.) — How the Other Half 
Lives. (N. Y., 1890.) 

Roosevelt, Theodore, Gouverneur Morris. (Amer. Statesmen, Bost., 1900.) 

— Naval War of 1812. (3d ed., N. Y., 1883.) — Strenuous Life. 
(N. Y., 1901.) — Winning of the West. (4 vols., N. Y., 1889-96.) 

Scudder, H. E., Men and Manners in America One Hundred Years Ago. 

(N. Y., 1876.) 
Sloane, W. M., French War and the Revolution, iJsd-ijSj. (Amer. Hist. 

Ser., N. Y., 1893.) 
Smedes, S. D., Memorials of a Southern Planter. (4th ed., N. Y., 1890.) 
Smith, T. C, Parties and Slavery. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1906.) 
South in the Building of the Nation. (12 vols., Richmond, 1909-.) 
Southworth, G. V. l3.. Builders of our Country. (2 vols., N. Y., 1906.) 
Sparks, E. E., Expansion of the American People. (Chic, 1900.) — 

National Development, 1877-1885. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1907.) 
Stockton, F. R., Buccaneers and Pirates of our Coasts. (N. Y., 1898.) — 

Kate Bonnet. (N. Y., 1902.) — Stories of New Jersey. (N. Y., 1896.) 
Stoddard, VV. O., Battle of New York. (N. Y., 1892.) — Boy Lincoln. 

(N. Y., 1905.) — Little Smoke. (N. Y., 1891.) — Long Bridge Boys. 

(Bost., 1904.) —Saltillo Boys. (N. Y., 1882.) 
Thwaites, R. G., Brief History of Rocky Mountain Exploration. (N. Y., 

1904.) — The Colonies, i4Q2-iy50. (Epochs of Amer. Hi.st., rev. 

ed., N. Y., 1910.) — Daniel Boone. (N. Y., 1902.) — Father Marquette. 

(N. Y., 1902.) — France in America. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1905.) 
Trowbridge, John, Samuel Finley Breese Morse. (Beacon Biog., Bost., 

1901.) 
Turner, F. J., Rise of the New West. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1906.) 
Tyler, L. G., England in America. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1904.') 
Van Tyne, C. H., American Rei'olution. (Amer. Nation, N. Y., 1905.) 
Washington, B. T., Upfront Slavery. (N. Y., 1901.) 
Weeden, W. B., Economic and Social History of New England. (2 vols., 

Bost., 1891.) 
Wilson, S. T., Southern Mountaineers. (N. Y., 1906.) 
Wilson, Woodrow, Division and Reunion. (Epochs of Amer. Hist., rev. 

ed., N. Y., 1910.) — History of the American People. (5 vols., N. Y., 

1902.) — New Freedom. (N. Y., 1913.) 
Winsor, Justin, Narrative and Critical History of America. (8 vols., Bost., 

1886-89.) 



INDEX 



Diacritic marks: a as in laie; a as in fat; a as in far; a as in care; a as in last; a as in fall; 
-£,^h as in cask, chasm; f as in ice; gh as in machine; e as in me; e as in met, berry; e as in veil; 
e as in term; k as in gem; g as in go; i as in tin; i as in police; N, the French nasal; 6 as in 
note; 6 as in not; 6 as in son; 6 as in for ; o as in do; s as in news ; tfa as in the; u as in tene; u as 
in »«/; u as in rude (=o) ; u as in full; ii = French t^'; y as in my. Single italic letters are silent. 



A. B. C. powers, 439, 500 
Abolitionists, 253-255, 316, 317 
Academy, 175 
Aca'dia, 59, 95, 96, 99 
Act of Association, 125 
Acts of Trade, 65, 112, 121, 123, 127, 156 
Adams, Charles F., 360 
Adams, Hannah, 87 

Adams, John, 8S, in, 127, 141, 145, 148, 178, 
183, 200 

President, 186, xx 
Adams, John Quincy, 241, 25s, 260, 289 

President, 242, xx 
Adams, Samuel, 125, 148, 183 
Addams, Jane, 474 
Aeroplane, 460 

Africa, early voyages to, 24-25 
Agricultural schools, 309, 475 
A-gMi-nal'do, 451 
Al-a-ba'ma, 235, 412, xix 
Alabama, 360, 361 
A'la-mo, 26s 
Alaska, 36, 238, 286, 381, 382, 441, 466, 480, 

48s 
AlTia-ny (al'-), 63, 98, 233, 280, 425 
Albany Congress, 98 
Alien and Sedition Acts, 186 
Allies, 502 
Amendments to Constitution, 163, 371, 372- 

375, 391. 397, 409, 497, 507 
America, naming of, 28 

American Federation of Labor, 422-423, 474 
Americans ; see People 
Amnesty, 371 

Amusements, 79-80, 170, 171, 224, 303-305 
Anarchists, 391, 467 
Anderson, Major Robert, 329, 330, 334 
An'dre, Major John, 136 
An'dros, Sir Edmund, 70 
Annap'olis, 309 

Annapolis (Md.) Convention, 160 
An-t/e'tam, battle, 338 
Anti-Federalists, 165, 178 
Anti-Imperialists, 452 
Antimasonic party, 249 
Antislavery, 236, 253, 254, 255 

arguments, 315-316 
A-pa'che Indians, 384 
Appalach'ian Mts., 29, 96, 100, 215, 233 
Appomat'tox, 363 
Apprenticeship, 171-172 
Argenti'na, 439 
Argonne', battle, 510 

Arizona, 382, 384, 387, 401 ,479-480, 485, xix 
Ar'kan-saj, 245, 289, 334, xix 
Arkwright, 271 
Arma'da, Spanish, 38-39 
Armstrong, John, 208 



Army, Civil War, ^34-333, 336, 337. 343-344, 
345-347, 351, 352. 365 

Revolutionary War, 133-134, 144, 145 

Spanish War, 448-450 

War of 1812, 207-208 
Arnold, Benedict, 134, 135, 136 
Arthur, Chester A., 403, 431, 436, xx 
Articles of Compact, 159 
Articles of Confederation, 150-151, 160, 163 
As'bury, Francis, 174 
Asia, trade with, 15, 17, 229 
Assembly, first, 47, 48 
Astor, John Jacob, 197, 276, 463 
Asto'ria, Oregon, 198, 207, 286 
As'trolabe, 16 
Athletics, 476 
Atlanta, 363, 414, 415 
Austin, Moses, 265 
Australian ballot, 484 
Austria, 502, 511, 512 
Autocracy, 503 
Automobile, 171, 461 
Autonomy, 447 

Bacon's Rebellion, 69 

Bahama Islands, 25 

Bal-bo'a, 28 

Ballot reform, 484-485 

Bal'ti-more, ro8, 168, 208, 247, 277 

Baltimore, Lord, 52 

Bank notes, 232, 353, 497 

Banks, 156, 181, 231-232, 276, 426, 466, 497 

Barlow, Joel, 175 

Barry, John, 137 

Batts, 71 

Beane, William, 102 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 248, 347 

Belgium, 14, 502, 505 

Be-lize', 121 

Bel'^nap, William W., 395 

Bell, Alexander Graham, 417 

Benton, Thomas H., 259 

Berke'ley, 66 

Bes'se-mer steel, 417 

Bicycle, 419 

Biddle, Nicholas, 262 

Bienville, Celoron de, 97 

Big business, 459, 467, 492 

Big trees, 381, 481 

Bimetallism, 400, 401, 402 

Bir'ming/jam, 412 

Blaine, James G., 398, 403-404, 440 

Bland, Edward, 71 

Bland Act, 402 

Blast furnaces, 412 

Blockade, 185, 210, 349, 352, 358, 360, 407, 503 

Board of Trade, 93 

Bol'i-var, Gen. Simon, 238, 240 



XXVI 



INDEX 



Bol-shg-vl-kl', soS 

Bon Homme Richard (bo-n6m're-shar'), 137 
Boone, Daniel, 102 
Bosses, 312, 4S3, 488 

Boston, 50, 82, I2S, 131, 134, 168, 247, 277, 
307i 423p 424. 460, 466 

Massacre, 124 

Tea Party, 124-125 
Boundaries, state, icS, 157, 158, 184 

U. S., 141, 194, 28s, 286, 289, 291, 292-293, 
381 
Bounty jumpers, 344 
Bounty lands, 158, 269 
Boxer Rebellion, 433 
Boycott, 124, 125 
Braddock, Gen., 98 
Bradstreet, Anne, 87 
Bragg, Gen., 361, 362 
Bran'dy-wine, battle, 135 • 
Bra-zir, 28, 238, 240, 398, 439, 509 
Breckinridge, John C., 323 
Bridges, 116, 181, 234, 414, 42s 
British Empire, 120-122; see England, Great 

Britain 
Brook Farm, 250 

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 421 
Brotherhoods, 249-250, 475 
Brown, John, 321 

Bryan, William J., 441, 452, 493, 495, 496 
Bryant, William CuUen, 176 
Bu-chan'an, James, 320, 322, 329, xx 
BufTalo. N. v., 247, 280, 420, 423 
Buffaloes, 35, 380 

Bull Run, battle, 336-337. 338, 350, 358 
Bunker Hill, battle. 134 
Bur-goyne', Gen., 135, 136 
Burr, Aaron, 187, 198 
Business, 376, 377, 407, 417-428 

colonial, 112-114 

government, 426, 465-467 
Business men, 463-464 
Butler, Gen. B. F., 345, 357 
But/f, Montana, 387 
Byrd, William, 78, 108-109 

Cabinet, 178-179, 467 

Cab'ot, John, 28, 45 

Ca-bral', 27-28 

Ca-bril'lo (-brel'yo), 36 

Caho'kia, 95, 138 

Calamities, 423 

Cal-ho«n', John C, 205, 255, 261, 263, 289, 

296 
California, 287, 288, 291, 292, 293, 294, 296, 

297, 376, 380, 381, 472, 485, 489, xix 
Calvert, Cecil, 52 
Cambridge, 50, 53, 134 
Cameras, 460 
Camp meeting, 226, 227 
Canada, 99, 127, 134, 135, 145, 205, 207, 210, 

388, 481 
Canalsj 232, 264, 279-280, 426-427 

See also Erie Canal, Panama Canal 
Canning, George, 241 
Cape Brct'on, 28 
Cape of Good Hope, 25, 26, 29 
Capitol, U. S., 178, 184, 207 
Carolinas, 68-69, loi 

See also North Carolina, South Carolina 
Carpetbaggers, 371, 395, 409 
Car-riin'za (-thii), 500 
Car'ter-et, Sir George, 66 
Carticr, Jacques (zhak kar-tya'), 36-37 
Cartwright, Rev. Peter, 227 
Cass, Lewis, 293 
Cattle, 380, 384, 432, 479 



Cavaliers, 64 

Ca-vi'te, 448 

Central Powers, 502 

Cervera (thar-va ra). Admiral, 448 

f ham-plain', Samuel de, 59, 60 

Chan'cellorsville, battle, 339, 350 

Charles I, 50, 52, 64 

Charles II, 64, 67 

Charleston, S. C, 69, 108, 13O, 16G, 247, 264, 

329, 410 
Charters, 19, 45, 46, 47, 50, 52, 93, loi 
Chase, Salmon P., 255, 313, 319, 345 
Chateau-Thierry (sha-to'tyir-rc'), Sio 
Chattanoo'ga, 361-362, 412 
Checks, 231 

Chfr-o-kees', a, 71, 97, 216 
Clies'a-peake, 199 
Chi-ca'go, 192, 226, 247, 280, 314, 380, 389, 

396, 423, 424, 460, 475 
Chickamau'ga, battle, 361 
Chick'a-saws, 216 

Child labor, 172, 273, 301, 474, 475 
Child Labor Act, 465, 498 
Children, 79-80, 84-86, 144, 172, 175, 224, 

250. 251. 300-309. 469 
Chl'le, 238, 439 

China, 15, 25, 26, 229, 4S3. 492, 509, 514 
Chinese, 388, 39i-39». 472 
Choc'taws, 216 
Christian Commission, 351 
Christina, Ft., 63 
Churches, 16, 44, 43, 52, 55, 80-81, 146, 173- 

174, 226, 227, 248-249, 391 
Cincinna'ti, 159, 225, 226, 247, 389, 423, 424 
Cities, 246-247, 250, 389, 396, 414, 462, 465, 

466, 469, 486, 487 
Civil service, 394, 403 
Civil Service Commission, 403 
Civil War, 329-366 
cost of, 364-366 

military events, 333-340. 359-364 
Clark, George Rogers, 138, 141, 158 
Cla.ssified service, 403, 431 
Clatsop, Ft., 197 
Clay, Henry, 205, 231, 240 260, 262, 264, 

285, 289, 294, 296 
Clay Furnace, 272 
Clayton .^ct, 465 
Clemm, Johnny, 344 
Clermont, 219 
Cleveland, Grovcr, 403, 404, 431, 434, 435, 

437, 439. 440, 441, xx 
Cleveland, Ohio, 225, 247, 272 389 423, 465 
Clinton, De Witt, 206, 232 
Clinton, George, 183 
Clipper ships, 258, 277 
Clothing, 225, 224 

Coal, 272, 387, 407, 412, 417, 480, 481 
Codfish, 28, 114 

Colleges, 87-88, 245, 307. 308-309, 411, 477 
Co-lom'bi-a, 238, 454 
Colonial System, iii 
Colonies, 107-108 

See separate colonies 
Colonists, early, 43-44 

life of, 77-80 
Col-o-rii'do, .^82, 387, 401, 485. xw 
Colorado River, 382 
Columbia, S. C, 364, 413 
Columbia River, 185, 19S. 323. 381, 432 
Columbia University, 87 
Columbus, Christopher, 24-27 
Columbus, Ga., 413 

Commerce 13-17. 229-230, 277, 376, 502 
Commission government, 486-487 
Committees of Correspondence, 125, 14S 



INDEX 



xxvn 



Committees of Safety, 147 

Common carriers 427 

Commonwealth, 64 

Compass, 15, 16 

Compromise of 1850, 294-297, 318 

Compulsory referendum, 489 

Concord, battle, 131 

Conestoga wagons, 218 

Confederate States of America, 330, 334, 343. 

348-349 
Congress, 163 
Connect'icut, 53, 56, 107, 15S, 164, xix 

charter, 53, 65, 70, loi, 146, 147 
Connecticut Compromise, 162 
Conscription, 344 
Conservation, 385, 480-484 
Constantinople, 13, 14, 23 
Constitution, 210 
Constitution, 151-1S2, 263, 264 

amendments, 371, 372-375. 397, 409. 497 

state, 147 

United States, 163-165, v-xviii 
Constitutional Convention, 160-165 

compromises of, 162-163 
Constitutional Union party, 324 
Continental Congress, 145, 146, 147 

First, 125, 131 

Second, 131-133, i47 
Continental System, 199, 205 
Contraband, 185, 357, 503 
Cooper, James F., 79, 176 
Copper, 382, 387, 480 
Corn, 270, 407 
Corn-wal'iis, Lord, 139, 141 
Co-ro-na'do (-tho), 35 
Corporations, 180, 181, 231, 276, 420, 436, 

463, 464, 497 
Cor'tes, Hernando, 33, 36 
Cotton, 236, 270, 276, 407, 411, 412, 415 
Cotton gin, 236, 276 
Cou-veiirs' de bois (bwii), 76 
Courts, county, 55 
Creeks, 97, 216 
Cromwell, Oliver, 64 
Crown Point, 100 
Cro-za.t', 95, 194 
Cuba, 100, 240, 296, 314-315, 333. 397-398, 

446-447, 450, 509 
Cumbe-land Gap, 102 
Cumberland Road, 233-235, 279 
Currency, 114-115, 353, 377, 399 
Custer, Gen., 384 

Czecho-Slovak (chek'o-slo-vak') Republic, 
S13 

Da-g«erre'o-typcs, 274 
Dakota, 382 

See also North Dakota, South Dakota 
Dare, Virginia, 85 
Da-ri-en', 28 
Dauphin Island, 93 
Dav'enport, Rev. John, 53 
Davis, Jefferson, 296, 312, 314, 321, 330, 331, 

334, 335, 349, 35°, 364. 37i 
Dearborn, Ft., 192 
Debs, Eugene V., 495 
Debts, private, 155, 156 

public, 156, 158, 180, 211, 373, 377, 407 
Declaration of Independence, 148-149, 151, 

161, i-iv 
Declaration of Rights, 123, 125 
Deerfield, 95-96 
De Kalb', 136 

Delaware, 68, 108, 164, 334, 373, xk 
Delaware Indians, 216 
Demarcation line, 26-27, 28 



Democratic party, 183, 264, 285, 313, 396, 

435, 437, 441 
Denmark, 504 
Denver, 387, 389 
Deposit Act, 266 
Des'er-et, state of, 322 
De Smet, Father, 288 
De So'to, Hernando, 34-35 
D'Es-tazNg', Admiral, 136 
De-troit, 95, 139, 207, 225, 247, 465 
Dewey, Admiral, 448 
Diaz (de'as), Bartholomew, 25 
Diaz, Gen., 439, 500 
Dickinson, John, 124 
Dingley tariff, 437, 494 
Direct primary, 487-488 
Diseases, 44, 76, 78-79, 224-225, 352, 449, 

462, 466 
District of Columbia, 184, 237, 255, 296, 357 
Dix, Dorothea, 249-250 
Dixie, 160 . 

Doddridge, Rev. Joseph, 217 
Don'gan, Gov., 66 
Doug'las, Stephen A., 313, 318, 320, 321, 323, 

324 
Draft, 344. 506, 511 
Dra'go Doctrine, 455 
Drake, Sir Francis, 37-38 
Dred Scott case, 320 
Dress, 78, 85, 86, 115, 352 
Du-quesne' (-kan'), Ft., 98, 100 
Dutch, S3, s6, 62-64, 65, 67 
Dyer, Mary, 71 

Eads, Capt., 414 

East Florida, 121 

East India Company, 65 

Ecuador, 238 

Edison, Thomas A.. 418 

Electoral Commission, 399 

Electricity, 128, 417, 418 

Elizabeth, Queen, 37, 38, 45 

Emancipation, 253, 357-359, 397 

Embargo Act, 199-200 

England, discoveries, 28, 37, 38 

government, 19, 64, 65, 92 

influence, 92, 169, 176, 390 

settlements, 38, 44-54, 65-69, 93 

settlers, 44, 71, 75, 92 

wars with France, 92-96, 98-100, 185 

war with Spain, 38-39 

See also Great Britain 
English language, 390, 391 
Enumerated goods, 112 
Era of Good Feeling, 242 
Er'icson, Leif, 23 
Erie, 272 

Erie Canal, 221, 232-233 
Es'pionage Act, 506 
Essex, 210 
Europe, commerce of, 13-17, 19, 24 

countries of, 13 

ideas in, 16, 18-19 
Evangelists, 248 
Expositions, 415, 475, 476 
Express companies, 278, 425, 438 

Factories, 229, 231, 252, 271, 275, 3or, 376 

Fairfax, Lord, 98 

Far West, 288, 322, 380, 387, 453, 479 

Farm machinery, 276, 419 

Farmers, 43, 46, 108, 114, 169, 170-171, 223, 

231, 245, 251, 270, 276, 420, 462 
Farmers, Alliance, 436 
Far'ragut, David G., 332, 337, 360 
Federal Reserve System, 497 



XXVIU 



INDEX 



Federal Trade Commission, 46s, 497 
Federalists, i6s, 183, 190, 210, 212 
Ferillo (fa-rel'yo), 36 
Field, Cyrus, 274 
Filibusters, 447 
Filipinos, 45:, 452, 498 
Fillmore, Millard, 296, 320, xx 
Finances, 159, 160 

during Civil War, 34s, 353, 377 

during Revolutionary War, 145-146 
Fires, 423 

Fisheries, 43, 59, 114, 323 
Five Nations, 59, 60 
Flatboat, 215, 219 
Flint, Timothy, 226 
Floods, 423 
Florida, 72, 100, 121, 240, 399 

admission, 291, xix 
Foch (fosh). General, 510 
Food, 44, 79, 108, 112, 144, 171, 221-223, 

250, 270, 27s, 418-419 
Force Bills, 396 
Forests, 30, 32, 215, 229, 343, 381, 407, 423 

national, 481 
Forty-niners, 294 
Fox, Charles James, 126 
Fox, George, 70 
France, alliance with U. S., 133-136 

colonies, 37, 59, 62 

explorations, 28, 61-62 

wars with England. 92, 95-96, 98-100, 185, 
198-199 

war with U. S., 186 

World War, ^502, 509, 510 
Franchises, 424 
Franklin, Benjamin, C8, 98, iii, 123, 127- 

128, 141, 147, 150, 161, 170 
Fredericksburg, battle, 338 
Free coinage, 401, 402, 493 
Freedmen, 370, 372, 408-410 
Freedmen's Bureau, 372 
Free-soil party, 293, 319 
Freight, 427-428 

Fre-mont', John C, 288, 320, 357 
French and Indian War, 9S-100 
French Canal Company, 427, 453, 454 
French Revolution, 184-185, 191 
Fugitive slaves, 237, 294, 296, 317, 357 
Fulton, Robert, 219 
Fundamental law, 151, 152 
Fundamental Orders, 53 
Fur trade, 43, 51, 59, 60, 107, 114, 197, 286- 

287, 380 
Furniture, 78, 102, 109, 170, 230 

Gadsden purchase, 292 

Gag Resolutions, 255 

Gage, Gen., 131 

Gal'latin, Albert, 183, 190, 205, 234 

Galley slaves, 17 

Galloway, Joseph, 127 

Galveston, 413, 487 

Ga'ma, N'iis'co dii, 26 

Games, 303-304 

Garfield, James A., 403, xx 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 253, 254, 331 

Gasoline engine, 460 

Gates, Gen., 135, 139 

Genoa, 14, 17, 25 

George III, 122, 133, 141, 145 

Georgia, 28, 81, 93, loi, 108, 157, 158, 164, 

371, xix 
Germans, 76, 81, 97, 174, 247, 313, 388, 390 
Germantown, 68 
Germany, 313, 4S4. S02. S03 
war with, 467, 505-515 



Gettysburg, battle, 339-340 

Geysers, 382, 383 

' /lent, treaty, 211-212 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 38 

Girard, Stephen, 276, 463 

Girls, 87, 174, 301, 307-308 

Goethals, Major, 493 

Gold, 272-273, 294, 377, 384, 387, 400. 401, 

4 2, 441, 480 
Gold and silver money, 377, 399, 400-402, 

441 
Goldbugs, 402, 440 
Goodyear, Charljs, 275 
Gorgas, Col., 493 
Gor such, 317 
Government, colonial, 47, 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 

67, 121, 147 
Grammar school, 86 
Grand Canyon, 12, 382, 479 
Grand Model, 68 
Grangers, 397 

Grant, Ulysses S., 337, 338, 344, 361, 362, 
363 

President, 375, 384, 394, 395, 396, 398, xx 
Gray, Capt., 185 

Great Britain, 92, 120, 121, 317, 381, 502; 
see England 

during Civil War, 338, 360, 36: 

government, 121-122, 123, 126 

treaties, 141, 159, 186, 211, 285, 286, 291, 
454 

wars with U. S., 131-141, 205-211 

\'enezuela, 440 
Great charter, 68 
Great emigration, 51 
Great War, see World War 
Greek Empire, 13, 16, 23 
Greeley, Ilorace, 331, 347, 396 
Greenback party, 397, 403 
Greenbacks, 353. 377. 399-400 
Greene, Gen. Nathanael, 139 
Greenland, 23 
Guam (gwiirn), 450, 451 
Guii-nii-han'i, 25 
Guerriire (gar-ryar'), 210 
GMi-ii'na, 238, 440 
Gunpowder, 15 
Gu'ten-bSrg, 16 

Hague Conferences, 490 

Ilai'li, 26, 192, 193 

Hale, Nathan, 88 

Half Moon, 62, 63 

Hamilton, .Mexander, 161, 165, 179, 180, >8i, 

187, 198 
Hampton Institute, 410 
Hancock, Gen. W. S., 402 
Hancock, John, 146 
Hanna, Mark, 446 
ITar'greaves, 271 
Harnden, William F., 278 
Harrison, Benjamin, 434, 436, 437, 440, xx 
Harrison, William Henry, 204, 208, 212 

President, 285, xx 
narrower, John, 109-110 
Hartford, 53 

Hartford Convention, 211 
Harvard, 87, 88 
Haughery, Margaret, 410 
Havana, 100, 447 
Hii-w.ii'ian Islands, 439, 469, 480 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 51 
Hay, John, 446, 453, 454. 493 
Hayes, Ruth'erford B., 398 

President, 399, 4^7, xx 
Hayne, Sen., 263 



INDEX 



XXIX 



Haystack Movement, 249 

Hen'nepin, Father, 61 

Henry, Patrick, 122, 123, 148 

Hessians, 133 

Hill, James jf., 463 

Hispanio'la, 25, 26 

Holidays, 304-30S 

Holland, 48, 62, 65 

Holy Alliance, 241 

Home life, 77-79, 221-224 

Homespun, 114, 223 

Homestead Act, 378, 385 

Hooker, Thomas, 53 

Hoover, Herbert C, 505, 507 

Hospitals, 351 

Houses, 72-78, 107, 170, 221, 223 

Hous'ton, Sam, 266 

Howe, Elias, 275 

Howe, Gen., 135 

Howe, Julia Ward, 308 

Hudson, Henry, 62-63 

Hudson Bay, 96 

Hudson's Bay Company, 121, 286 

Huerta (wer'ta), 500 

Hughes (huz), Charles E., 504 • 

Hu'g!(e-nots, 37, 75 

Huntington, Collis P., 386 

Hutchinson, Gov., 123, 127 

Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 52 

Hydraulic mining, 272 

Hy-la-c6m'y-lus, 28 

i-ber-vil/e', 93 
Ice, 418 
Iceland, 23, 25 
Idaho, 382, 401, 48s 

admission, 432, xix 
Illinois', 174, 221, 229, 23s, 246, 48s, xix 
Immigrants, 43, 7S, 247-248, 269, 313, 388, 
389, 390, 470-471 

contributions of, 248, 304, 390 
Immigration laws, 391-392, 472 
Impeachment, 375 

Impressment, 185, 199, 204, 205, 211 
Inalienable rights, 122, 149, 151 
Incas, 33 

Income tax, 497 , 

Indentured servants, 109 
Independence Hall, 148 
Independents, 44 
India, 15, 24, 25, 26, 100, 120 
Indian Territory, 216, 479 
Indiana, 138, 174, 204, 246, 397 

admission, 235, .xix 
Indians, 76-77, 97, 100, no, 134, 216-217, 
288, 380, 385. 479 

life of, 32-33, 216-217 

relations with whites, 76 

warfare, 77, 95 

wars, S3, 69, 204, 384 
Inflation, 400 
Initiative, 488, 489 
Insane, 250, 251 

Insular government, 451-452, 498 
Insurgents, 494 
Internal improvements, 229, 233, 258, 264, 

265, ?8o 
Interstate commerce, 437-438, 497 
Interstate Commerce Commission, 438, 498 
Inventions, 273-276, 417-420, 460 
I'owa, 246, 269, 291, xix 
Irish immigrants, 247 
Iron, 51, 114, 271-272, 342, 376, 407, 412 
Ir-o-quois', 59, 60, 72, 97, 108 
Irrigation, 385, 479, 481 
Irving, Washington, 176 



Isabella, Queen, 25 

Island of Orleans, loo, 193, 194 

Italy, 502, 511, 513 

Jackson, Andrew, 97, 204, 205, 209, 212, 216, 
242, 394 

President, 259, 261-265, xx 
Jackson, Gen. Thomas J. ("Stonewall"), 349, 

350 
Jama/'ca, 64, 121 
James I, 45, 46, 64 
James II, 67, 70 
Jamestown, 45, 69 
Japan, 15, 25, 26, 502 

and Russia, 492 
Japanese, 472 
Java, 62 

Jay, John, 141, 179, 186 
Jay Treaty, 186 

Jefferson, Thomas, 88, T48, 151, 170, 172, 179, 
i8r, 190-191, 194, 307, 308 

President, 187, 190-200, xx 
Jenner, Dr. Edward, 225 
Jerks, 227 

John, King of England, 19 
Johnson, Andrew, 370, 371, 375, 495, xx 
Johnson, Dr, Samuel, 169 
Johnson, Sir William, 97 
Johnston, Gen. Albert S., 337 
Johnston, Gen. Joseph E., 33S, 363, 364 
Johnstown, 423 

Joint stock trading company, 45 
Joliet (zho-lya'), 61 
Jones, John Paul, 137 
Juan (hoo-an') de Fu'ca, 36, 291 
Jugoslav'ia (yoo-), created, 513 

Kansas, 319, 320, 322, 323, 436, 485 

admission, 331, xLx 
Kansas City, 289 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 317-319, 322 
Kaskas'kia, 95, 138 
Kcar'ny, Gen., 292 
Kcar'sarge, 361 
Kentucky, 139, 158, 159, 334, 337, 343, 375 

admission, 183, xLx 
Ke'o-kiik, 484 
Key, Francis Scott, 209 
King George's War, 96 
King Philip, 69-70 
King William's War, 95 
Kings Mountain, battle, 139 
Kitchen Cabinet, 262 
Klondike River, 441 
Knight, Madam, 116 
Knights of Labor, 421 
Know-nothings, 319, 320 
Knox, Henry, 179 
Koi-suth', Louis, 313 
Ku-Klux Klan, 396, 409 

Labor, 251-252, 414, 421-423, 474 

Labor Reform party, 397 

Labor unions, 273, 421-423, 474 

Ladies' Aid Societies, 351 

La-fa-yet/f', Marquis de, 136 

Lake Champlain, 60, 100. 135, 207, 200 

Land grants, 377, 385, 387 

Language, 390 

Lansing, Robert, 496 

La Pla'ta, 238, 439 

La Sal/e', 61 

Latin America, 238-240 

Lead, 229 

Lead'ville, Colo., 387 

League of Nations, 513-514 



XXX 



INDEX 



Lecomp'ton, 320 

Ledcrcr, 71 

Lee, Lucinda, 79 

Lee, Robert E., 321, 332, 338, 349, 363, 364, 

372 
Le-5n', Pon'ce (-tha) de, 34 
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 426, 427 
Letters of marque, 117 
Lewis and ("lark, 195 197 
Lexinfiton, battle, 131 
Liberty party, 293 
Libraries, 82, 108, 128, 170, 245, 475 
Lincoln, Abraham, 221, 250, 293, 316, 321, 

324, 32s. 329, 330 
President, 331, 334, 335, 338, 347-348, 357. 

358, 359, 364, 370, 372, 373. "C 
Linsey-woolsey, 223 

Literature, 88-89, I7S~I76. 475-476 

Livingston, Robert R., 193, 194 

Local option, 489 

London Company, 45, 47 

Long, Dr. Crawford \V., 276 

Longfellow, Henry \V.. 347 

Louisburg, 96, 100 

Lo«-I-sT-a'na, 61, 93-95, 100, 192, 193, 194, 

359, 399, 407. 409 
admission, 197, xix 

Louls-villc 225 

Low Countries. 14, 17 

Lowell, James Russell, 316, 347 

Lower South, 396 

Loyalists, 134, 145, 155 

Lucas, Eliza, 87 

Lusitania, 503 

Luther, Martin, 16 

Lynching, 145, 250 

Lyon, Mary, 308 

McClcllan, George B., 337, 338, 348 

McCormick, Cyrus, 276 

MacDon'oMjgA, Com., 208 

McHcnry, Ft., 208 

Machines, 271. 273, 274, 276, 417, 419, 4^9 

McKinley, VVilliam, 436 

President, 441, 446, 447, 451, 452, .\x 
McKinley tariff, 436. 437, 494 
Ma-com?>', Gen., 20S 
Ma-de'ro, 500 

Madison, James, 88, 131, 161, 162, 165, 183, 
200, 232 

President, 204-212, 230, xx 
Magazines, 169, 476 
Ma-gel'lan, 29 
Magna Charta, 19, 92 
Maine, 45. 54, 70, 207, 211, 237. 249, 285 

admission, 238, xix 
Maine, 447 
Manchuria. 492 
Mandan, Ft.. 195 
Manhood suffrage. 485 
Ma-nil'a, 100, 448, 498 
Manufacturing, 114, 229, 231, 236, 245, 246, 

252, 271-272, 412-413, 420 
Ma-ri-et'ta, O., 159 
Mar'i-on, Gen. Francis, 139 
Mar-quctte' (-k6t'), Father, 61 
Marshall, Emily. 170 
Marshall, John, 186, 191 
Maryland, 52-53, 68, 108, 151, 164, 358, xix 

charter, 52 
Mason and Dixon line, 160, 168, 317 
Massachusetts, 50-52, 56, .71, 84, 107, 131, 
147, 165, xix 

charter, 70, 101, 125 
Massachusetts General Court, 51, 86, 145 
Matagorda Bay, 61, 194 



Math'er, Cotton, 82, 85, 87 

Matthew, Father, 249 

Mayflower, 49, 85 

Mayflower Compact, 49-50 

Mecklenburg Convention, J48 

Min-do-fl'no, 36 

Merchants, 78, 114 

Merrimcc, 338, 360 

Mexico, 32, a, 34, 35. 238, 240, 242, 265, 294, 

4387439, 493 
war with- 291-292, 498-500 
Ml-a'mis, 97, 216 
Michigan, 221, 280 

admission, 285-286, xix 
Miles, Gen., 448 

Militia, 133, 134, 208, 210, 344, 448 
Mining, 229, 272, 376, 387, 401, 412, 459, 474, 

479, 480 
Ministers, 81-82, 144, 226, 352 
Minneapolis, 61, 389 

Minnesota, 246, 247, 269, 322, 323, 494, xix 
Minutemen, 131 
Missionaries, 18, 59, 60, 216, 226, 249, 287, 

288 
Mississippi, 235, xix 
Mississippi River, 34, 61, 62, 93 
Missouri, 237, 269, 318, 334, 337, 358, 389 

admission, 238, xix 
Missouri Compromise, 237-238, 293, 317, 318, 

320 
Missouri River, explored, 195-197 
Mo-bile', 93, 95, 225, 360, 413 
Mo'doc Indians, 384 
Molasses Act, 112 
Monitor, 338 

Monopolies, 435, 464-465, 492 
Monroe, James, 151, 193, 194 

President, 241, 242, xx 
Monroe Doctrine, 240-242, 286, 439, 440, 

454-455 
Monta'na, 382, 387, 401, 485, 486 

admission, 432, xix 
M6nt-ca/m', Gen., 100 
Montgom'cry, Ala., 330 
Mont-re-al', 60 
Morgan, Sir Henry, 116 
Mormoijs, 322, 384 
Morris, Gouverneur, 163 
Morris, Robert, 146, i6i 
Morse, Samuel F. B., 274 
Morton, Dr., 276 
Mosquito, 44, 224, 450 
Mott, Lucrctia, 254, 308 
Mount Holyoke College, 308 
Mountain Meadow, 322 
Mountain whites, 245 
Moving pictures, 460 
Mugwumps, 404 

Names, 168. 226, 300 

Napoleon, 186, 191-192, 193, 194, 198, 199, 

204. 205, 211 
Na.shville, 363 
Nast, Thomas, 395 
National Education Association, 475 
National Parks, 11, 12, 481 
National Road, 234, 279 
Niv'a-hos, a 
Naval stoVes, 69, 108, 115 
Navigation Acts, 65, 112, 155 
NaN-y, Civil War, 337, 359-361 

Revolutionary War, 133, 136-138 

Spanish War, 448 

War of 1812, 209-210 
Nebra.ska, 318, 322, 496 

admission, 382, xix 



INDEX 



XXXI 



Necessity, Ft., gS 
Negro troops, 134. 359 
Negroes, see Slaves 

after Civil War, 408-409 

education, 410-411 

laborers, 408-409, 412 

suffrage, 409-410 
Nelson, Lord, 199 
Neutrals, 185, 502 
Ne-va'da, 382, 391, 485, xix 
New Amsterdam, 63, 64, 66, 8s 
New England Confederation, 56, 130 
New England Primer, 89 
New France, 60 
New freedom, 496 
New Hampshire, S4. 7°, i°7, 160, 16s, xix 

constitution, 147 
New Haven, 53, 56, 65 
New Jersey, 66, 67, 108, 164, 495, xix 
New Mexico, 35, 36, 289, 292, 294, 296, 322, 
384 . 

admission, 479, xix 
New Netherland, 56, 63 
New Or'le-ans, 95, 99, 100, 192, 193, 209, 225, 

247, 277, 337, 413, 414 
New Providence, 137 
New South, 407-415 
New Sweden, 64 

New York (city), 63, 135, 168, 233, 247, 277, 
300, 344, 389, 395, 396, 424. 435. 460, 
466, 486 
New York (state). 28, 66, 101, 108, 160, 175, 

183, 397, 403, 404, 434, 481, 485, xix 
Newfoundland, 28, 38, 59, 96, 114, 121 
Newlands Act, 481 
Newport, 135 

Newspapers, 88, 128, 153, 245, 270, 466, 476 
Niagara Falls, 11, 305, 481 
Ni-ca.-ra'gua, 427, 453 
Nominating conventions, 487 
Norsemen, 23 
North, (1790) 2IS, (1830) 24s, (1861) 342, 

345-347, 351-352, (1865) 370, 375-376 
North, Lord, 126 
North America, interior of, 29-32 
North Carolina, 69, 108, 157, 138, 16s, 184, 

30s, 334, xix 
North Dakota, 432, xix 

See also Dakota 
Northwest, 285-287 
Northwest Territory, 158, 160 
Nova Scotia, 28, 96, 121, 145 
Nullification, 263, 435 

Office buildings, 418 
O'gle-thorp;, James, 93 
Ohio, 174, 246, 286, 397 

admission, 192, xix 
Ohio Company, 97, 159 
Ohio River, 215, 216, 219, 233, 279, 2S0 
Oil, 407, 420, 464, 479, 481, 498, 500 
Ok-la-ho'ma, 479, xix 
Olney, Richard, 440 
Omaha, 389 
Open-door policy, 453 
Orange, Ft., 63 
Orders in Council, 199, 205 
Ordinance, Grayson's, 158 

Jefferson's, 158 
„ Northwest, 158, 159 

Or'e-gon, 195, 198, 286, 287, 289, 291, 293, 
322,381,485 

admission, 323, xix 
Oregon Trail, 287-288, 323 
0-ris'ka-ny, battle, 135 
Otis, James, 123 



Pacific Ocean, 29 

Pak'en-/zam, Gen., 209 

Pan-a-ma', 27, 28, 36, 95, 454, 509 

Panama Canal, 175, 426-427, 453-454, 466, 

493 
Pan-American Congress, 440, 493 
Panic, (1837) 266, (1873) 378, (1893) 440 
Paper money, 15, 115, 146, 156, 211, 232, 

349, 353, 399, 400 
Parcel post, 426, 466 
Parishes, 55 

Parker, Alton B., 455, 494 
Parliament, 64, 121, 122, 123, 125, 126 
Partisan Rangers, 134 
Patents, 273, 274 
Pat'er-son, William, 95 
Patrons of Husbandry, 397 
Pa-troons', 63 
Pavements, 461 
Payne-Aldrich tariff, 494, 496 
Pendleton Act, 403 
Penn, William, 67, 68 
Pennsylvania, 67-68, 101, io3, 131, 147, 

160, 164, 168, 17s, 229, 279, 420, 474, 

xbc 
University of, 88, 128 
Pensions, 436 
People, American, 12, 13, 18, 155, 169-170, 

245-255, 300-309, 453, 459 
character of, 55, 169-170, 212, 217, 248, 

463 
during war, 144-146, 150, 351-353 
life of, 44, 50, 51, 75-89, 126, 169-173, 

469-476 _ 
See also Children, Churches, Dress, Farmers, 

Food, Girls, Houses, Immigrants 
People's party, 436 
Pe'quot Indians, 5? 
Per'ry, Oliver H., 208 
Pershing, Gen., 500, 509 
Personal Liberty Laws, 317, 332 
Pe-ru', 32, 33, 34, 238 
Petersburg, 108, 363 
Petroleum, 420 
Philadelphia, 67, 73, 108, 125, 127, 131, 135, 

160, 168, 237, 247, 424, 460, 466 
Phirip-pin« Islands, 29, 100, 448, 450, 451- 

452, 469, 494, 498 
Phillips, Wendell, 254 
Phonograph, 418 
Phosphate, 411 
Photography, 274, 460 
Pickett's charge, 339 
Pierce, Franklin, 312, xx 
Pike, Lieut. Zebulon M., 197 
Pikes Peak, 197 
Pilgrim Fathers, 49, 50 
Pirates, 14, 17, 116-117, 198 
Pitt, William, 99, 126 
Pittsburg Landing, battle, 337 
Pittsburgh, 98, 101, 215, 226, 247, 272, 279, 

280, 422 
Pl-zar'ro, Francisco, 33 
Plaf'ers, 272, 294, 441, 480 
Planters, 55, 170, 263, 270 
Plate fleet, 112 
Piatt, Thomas C, 453 
Piatt Amendment, 450 
Plattsburg, battle, 208 
Play, children's, 303-304 
Plym'outh colony, 48-50, 56, 70 
Plymouth Company, 45 
Pocahon'tas, 46, 47 
Folk, James K., 289, 291 
President, 292, 293, xx 



XXXll 



INDEX 



Polo, Marco, is 

Polygamy, .^84, 391, 479 

Pon'ti-ac. loi 

Pool system, 424, 427 

Poor Ricltard's Almanac, 127 

Popular soverciRnly, 318, 320 

Population, (1689) 71, (175°) 7Si (1790) 
168-169, 217, (1800) 192, (1812) 205, 
(1810) 217, (1830) 217, 24s, 246, (r86i) 
342, (1890) 414, (1916) 469 

Populists, 436 

Port Royal, 59, 95 

Por'to Ri'co, 240. 448, 450-451, 469, 480 

Portsmouth, N. H., 492 

Portugal, discoveries, 24, 25, 27-28 

Postal savings banks, 426, 466 

Potash, 115 

Pow-ha-tin', 46 

Preemption Act, 269, 385 

Presidential election, (1788) 178, (1792) 
183, (1796) 186, (1800) 187, {1804) 191, 
(1808) 200, (1812) 206, (1824) 242, 
(1828) 242, (1832) 262, (1836) 264, 
(1840) 28s, (1844) 289-291. (1848) 
293, (1852) 312, (1856) 320, (i860) 
323-324, (1864) 348, (1868) 375, (1872) 
396, 397, (1876) 398-399. (1880) 402- 
403, (1884) 403-404, (1888) 434, (1892) 
436, (1896) 441, (1900) 452, (1904) 455- 
456, 494, (1908) 493-494, (1912) 494- 
495, (1916) 503-504 

Princeton, 88, 495 

Printing, 15, 16, 274, 460, 466 

Prisoners, no, 156, 250, 475 

Privateers, 92, 117, 137, 138, 209, 210, 360 

Proclamation Line, 100, loi 

Proclamation of Emancipation, 358, 339 

Proclamation of Neutrality, 185 

Progressive party, 494, 493, S03 

Prohibition, 249, 489, 508 

Prohibition party, 397 

Proprietors, 32. 53 

Proslavery arguments, 315 

Protective tariff, 230, 231, 242, 246, 263, 264, 
431, 434-436, 494 

Providence, 54, 236 

Public land, 158, 269, 377, 383 

Pueb'lo (pwgl)'-) Indians, 33 

Pullman Car Company, 425, 438 

Puncheons, 78 

Pure Food and Drugs Act, 465 

Puritans, 44, 45, 34, 64, 71, 79, 85, 107 

Put-in-Bay, battle, 208 

Putnam, Rufus, 159 

Quakers, 67, 70-71, 81, iii 
QuebSc', 39, loo, loi, 121, 134 
Queen Anne's War, 93 
Qui-vi'ra (ke-), 35 

Railroads, 280-282, 312, 314, 342, 376-377, 
38s, 386-387, 413-414, 420, 422, 423- 
424, 427-428, 437-438, 460 

regulation of, 428, 464-463, 494 
Ra'kXgh, N. C, ^64 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 38, 46 
Ranches, 387 
Randolph, Edmund, 179 
Rapid transit, 424 
Rates, freight, 427-428, 438 
Recall, 489 
Reconccntration, 447 
Reconstruction, 369-378 

Act, 370 

amendments, 372-375 

financial, 377-378 



Reconstruction, of business, 375-377 

of negroes, 372 

of southern whites, 371-372 

of states, 370-371, 395-396 
Red Cross, 305, 312 
Redemptioners, 109, 171 
Reed, Mrs. Esther, 144 
Referendum, 489 
Reformation, Protestant, 16, 44 
Religion, 16, 44, 32, 53, 34, 67, 70, 71, 76, 

8t, 88, 133, 139, 227, 248 
RSn-ais-siiNfe' (.-€-), 15, 16 
Republican party, 319, 320, 323, 33^, 396, 

397. 431, 435 
Republicans, early, 183, 1S6, 206 
Reservations for Indians, 216, 384 
Re-verc', Paul, 131 
Revolutionary War, 131-142, 155 

people during, 144-146, 155-156 

reasons for, 126-127 
Rhode Island, 53-54, 107, 146, 160, 165, xbc 

charter, 65, 70, 147 
Rice, 236, 411 

Richmond, \a., 108, 334, 335, 342, 363, 412 
Ri'o de Ja-nei'ro (zha), 29, 493 
Roads' 116, 181, 218, 279, 461-462 
Ro-a-noke', 412 
Roanoke Island, 38 
Robertson, James, 102 
Rochambeau (ro-shas'-bo'). 141 
Rochester. 233 
Rolfe, John, 46, 47 
Roo'je-vgit, Nicholas, 221 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 449, 452-453, 454, 455, 

456, 492, 493, 494. 495. 503. XX 
Root, Elihu, 449, 493 
Rough Riders, 449 
Roundheads, 64 
Row-galleys, 17 
Royal province, 48, 67 
Rubber, 275 

Rural free delivery, 420, 426 
Russia, 238, 241, 286, 382, 492, 502, 508 

Sa'ga, 23 

St. Au'gus-tinc, 35-36, 93 

St. LSg'er, Gen., 135 

St. Louis, 195, 197, 225, 226, 247, 334, 413, 

423, 424, 476 
St. Mihiel (siN-me-yCr), battle, 310 
St. Paul, 225 
St. Thomas, 304 
Salem, 50, 31, 84 
Sampson, Admiral, 448 
San Francisco, 36, 294, 377, 386, 423, 424, 

466,472,476 
San Juan (hoo-iin'), battle, 448 
San Juan Islands, 381 
Siin Miir-tTn', Gen. Jose de, 238 
Sanitary Commission, 331 
San'ta An'na, Gen., 263, 266, 292 
Santa Fe, 36. 289. 294 
San-ti-a'go df Cuba, 448 
San'to Do-min'go, 398, 455 
Sarato'ga, 135, 144. 305 
Savannah, 108, 136, 363, 413 
Scalawags, 371 
Scandinavians, 23, 247, 388 
Schools, 86-87, 174-173, 269. 304, 305-308, 

410-411, 462, 471. 472, 475 
Schurz, Carl (shurts), 314. 396. 399 
SchMy'ler, Gen., 13s, 144 
Scott, Gen. Winfield, 292, 312, 332 
Seabury, Bishop, 173 
Seattle, 381.386 
Secession, 329, 331, 332-333, 366 



INDEX 



xxxm 



Seicheprey (sash-pra'), battle, 509 

Sem'i-noles, 216 

Senators, election of, 497 

Separatists, 44, 48, 52 

Se-rd'pis, 137 

Servants, 55, 109-110, 171, 273 

Se-v/er', John, 102 

Seward, William H., 312, 316, 319, 345, 

382 
Shafter, Gen., 448 
Shakers, 174 
Shakespeare, 17, 18 
Shaw, Col. Robert G., 359 
Shawnees, 97, 216 
Shays's Rebellion, 157, 160 
Sher'i-dan, Gen. Philip H., 363 
Sherman, John, 400 
Sherman, Roger, 161 
Sherman, William T., 338, 362, 363, 364 
Sherman Antitrust Act, 465, 497 
Sherman Silver Act, 402, 434 
Shipping, 229, 231 
Short ballot, 475, 484 
Short-haul system, 428, 438 
Silver, 387, 400, 401, 402, 440 
Sioux Indians, 384 
Sitting Bull, 384 
Six Nations, 59, 97, 138 
Skyscrapers, 417, 469 
Slave trade, iio-iii, 162, 237, 296 
Slavery, 19, 43, 48, in, 162, 172, 235-236, 
237-238, 24s, 314, 357, 358, 366, 373, 
398 

arguments, 315-316 

in territories, 159, 293, 317-319, 320 
Slaves, 76, 93, no, 115, 163, 252-253, 314, 
■315 . 

emancipation of, 160 
Sloop-folk, 247 
Slums, 469 

Smallpox, 79, 225, 462 
Smith, Captain John, 46 
Smith, Gerrit, 254 
Smuggling, 112 
Socialists, 466, 495. 508, 515 
Societies. 249-250, 475 
Solid South, 396, 398, 404, 437, 504 
South, (1790) 215, (1830) 245-246, 248, 
(1861) 342, 352-353, (1865) 365, 369-370, 
407 
South America, 27, 28, 238, 439, 440, 493 
South Carolina, 37, 69, 108, 157, 165, 184, 
333, 399, 409, xix 

nullification, 263, 264 

secession, 329, 334 

See also Carolinas 
South Dakota, 432, 489, xLx 

See also Dakota 
Spain, and her colonies, 62, 238-240, 397, 
447 

claim to territory, 45, 68, 72 

colonies of, 33-34, 36, in, 112 

discoveries, 25, 26, 34-36 

war with England, 38-39, 92 

war with U. S., 398, 447-450 
Specie, 400 
Spinning, 114, 223 
Spoils System, 261-262, 403 
Spo-kane' Falls, 381 
Stalwart Republicans, 404, 431 
Stamp Act, 123 
Stamp .^ct Congress, 123 
Standard Oil Co., 420 
Standish, Captain Myles, 50 
Standpatters, 494 
Stanford, Leland, 386 



Stanton, Edwin M., 347, 375 

Star of the West, 333 

Star-Spangled Banner, 209 

State of Deseret, 322 

State of Franklin, 184 

State universities, 309, 475 

Stay and Tender laws, 156 

Steamboat, 219-221, 277, 278, 388, 413, 426, 

464 
Steel, 412, 417 
Stephens (ste'venz), Alexander H., 315, 330, 

Steu'ben, von, 136 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 371 

Stock, 180, 463 

Stott'e, Harriet Beecher, 316 

Street cars, 424, 460 

Strikes, 422, 474 

Stuart, "Jeb," 363 

St!<y've-sant, Peter, 64 

Submarines, 503, 505 

Subways, 460 

Suez Canal, 426 

Suffrage, 152, 181, 371, 373, 375, 397, 485- 

486 
Sullivan, Gen., 138 
Sumatra, 62 ■ 

Sumner, Charles, 254, 345, 394 
Sumter, Ft., 329, 330, 333, 334 
Surplus, treasury, 266, 434, 436 
Swedes, 63-64, 67 
Symwes Purchase, 159 

Tacoma, 381, 386 

Taft, William H., 493, 494, 495, 498, xx 

Tampa Bay, 34 

Tariff, (1789) 180, (1816) 230-231, (1824) 

242, (1828) 242, (1832) 263, (1833) 264, 

(1846) 271, 312, (1857) 312, (1883) 434, 

(1890) 436, (1894) 437, (1897) 437, (1909) 

494, (1913) 497 
Tariff arguments, 434-436 
Tariff of .'Abominations, 242 
Taxation, 122, 125, 126, 156, 160, 162, 163, 

173. 175, i8i, 211, 345, 377, 434 
Taylor, Za^h'ary, 292 

President, 293, 294, 296, xx 
Te-cura'seh, 204 
Te-huan-te-pec' (-wan-), 36 
Telegraph, 274, 420, 425, 460 
Telephone, 171, 417, 420, 425 
Teller Resolution, 448, 450 
Temperance, 93, 249 
Tennessee, 139, 159, 334, 343, 358, 412 

admission, 184, xLx 
Tenure of Office, 375 
Texas, 195, 265-266, 289, 293, 294, 296, 380, 

389, 407, 410, 414 
admission, 291, xix 
Textbooks, 306-307 
Thames (temz) River, battle, 20S 
Thomas, Gen.. 361, 362 
Tilden, Samuel J., 395, 398 
Tippecanoe', 204, 216 
Tobacco, 46, 47, 48 53, 112, 236, 270, 

411 
Toleration Act, 52-53 
Toombs, Robert, 333, 334 
Tories, 145 
Tos-ca-nel'li, 25 
Town meeting, 50, 55, 181 
Town's/jend Acts, 123, 124 
Tracy,^Nathaniel, 136, 138 
Trade, in, 114, 115-116, 185 
Traf-al-gar', 199 
Transcontinental railroads, 377, 384, 386 



XXXIV 



INDEX 



Transportation; see Canals, Railroads, 

Roads 
Transylvania, loi 
Trappers, 287 

Travel, 43, 44, 116, 218-219, 305 
Treaty of Paris, 100 
Treaty of 1783, 141, 159 
Triple Entente (aN-tiiNt'), S02 
Trip'o-li, 198 
Triumvirs, 260, 312 
Trolley lines, 424, 465, 466 
Truck farming, 411 
Trumbull, John, 175 
Trusts, 420, 435, 464-465, 492, 494. 497 
Turkey, 23-24, 502, 505, 512 
Tuscaro'ra Indians, 59 
Tus-ke'gee, 410 
Tu-tu-i'la, 451 
Twain, Mark, 278 
Tweed Ring, 395 
Tyler, John, 285 

President, 288, 289, xx 
Typewriter, 419 

Uncle Tom's Cabin, 316 

Underground Railroad, 317 

Underwood, Oscar W., 496 

Underwood tariff, 497 

"United States," meaning, 11, 12 

United States Bank, 181, 2JI-232, 259, 262, 

263 
Upper Canada, 208 
Utah, 322, 384, 485. 
admission, 479, xix 

Vaccination. 225, 462, 466 

Vagrant laws, 372 

Vallan'digAam, C. L., 345 

Valley Forge, 13s 

Van Buren, Martin, 259, 261, 264, 285, 293 

President, 273, 589* xx 
Vandcrbilt, Cornelius, 420, 423, 463 
Ven-e-zue'la (-zwe'-), 238, 440 
Venice, 14, 17 
Ve'ra Cruz (kroos), 500 
Vermont, 147, 160 

admission, 163, xix 
Vfir-ra-za'no (-rat-sa'-), 28 
Vespucius, Amgr'icus, 28 
Veto, 232, 262, 370, 394. 472 
Vicksburg, 337. 3i^, 339 
Villa, 500 

Villard, Henry, 386 
Vin-^ennrs', 95, 138, 226 
Virgin Islands, 504 

Virginia, 38, 46-48, 69, 71, 86, loi, 108, 
I2S, 131. 151. 157. 158. i6s, 334, 396, 
'xix 

assembly, 47 

charter, 46, 47 
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 186 
Virginia City, 387 
N'irginia Plan, 162 
Voters, Indian, 479 

negro, 396, 409-4JO. 48s 

women, 473, 485 

Walla Walla, 381 

War governors, 347 

War Hawks, 205 

War of 1812, 205-212 

War with Germany, 503-504 

Ward, Artemus, 347 

Ward, Gen. Artemas, 156 

Washington, 322, 381, 432, 485, 489, xix 



Washington (D. C), 184, 207, 208, 211, 335, 

336, 337 
Washington, George, 88, 97-98, 109, 127, 
133. 134. 160, 161, 162, 170, 178, 187 

President, 178-183, xx 
Wa-tau'ga .Association, 102 
Water power, 480-481, 484 
Waterloo, battle, 211 
Watt, James, 219 
Wayne, Gen. Anthony, 216 
Weaver, Gen., 436 

Webster, Daniel, 205, 260, 263, 264, 285, 296 
Weed, Thurlow, 312 
Welles, Gideon, 347 
Wesley, John and Charles, 81, 173 
West, 96, 159, 205, (1790) 215, (1830) 246, 
(1865) 376, (1869) 380 

settlers, 2:7-218 

state claims to, 157-158 
West Florida, 121, 193, 194, 19s 
West India Company, 63 
West Indies, 27, 51, 107. 115, 116, 121, 145, 

156, 229, 360, 419, 504 
West Point, 136, 309, 345 
West \'irginia, 358, 412, .xix 
Western Reserve, 158, 159, 192, 223 
Westsylvania, 101 
Westward movement, 96-97, 101-102, 170, 

215-227, 265, 382, 389 
Wey'ler, Gen., 447 
Wheat, 270 
Whig party, 265, 285 
Whisky Ring, 395 
White. Peregrine, 85 
Whltf'ficld, Rev. George, 85 
Whitman, Dr. Marcus, 288-289 
Whitney, Eli, 236 
Whit'ti-er, John G., 254, 347 
Wilderness, battle, 362 
Wil-la'met/e Valley, 323, 381 
Willard, Frances E., 474 
William and Mary, 87, 88 
Williams, Roger, 52. 54 
Williams College, 249 
Wilmot Proviso, 293 
Wilson, Woodrow, 97, 472 

President, 495-498, 5°°. S04, S06, 514 is 
Wilson-Gorman Act 437 
Winthrop, John, 50, 51 
Wisconsin, 221, 247, 291, 475, xix 
Witchcraft, 84 
Wolfe, Gen. James, 100 
Women, 472-473 

suffrage, 4S5-486 
Wood, Col. Abraham, 71 
Wood, Gen. Leonard. 449 
Woolman, John, iii 
World War, 502-517 
Wright, Frances, 3018 
Wyandots, 216 
Wy'eth, Nathaniel J., 287 
Wy-o'ming, 382, 485 

admission, 432, xix 

X. V. Z. affair, 186 

Yale, 82, 87, 88, 477 

Yankees, 212, 352 

Yellowstone, 382, 432, 481 

York, Duke of, 66, 67 

Yorktown, 141 

Yo-sem1-te National Park, n, 381, 481 

Young, Brigham, 322, 384 

Yukon River, 382 

Zu'nis (-nyees), 35 



HALLECK'S NEW 
ENGLISH LITERATURE 

By REUBEN POST HALLECK, M. A.,LL.D., author 
of History of English Literature, History of American 
Literature, and Psychology and Psychic Culture. 



THIS New English Literature preserves the qualities 
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*^ Over 200 pictures selected for their pedagogical value and 
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